


Now You're Thinking With Portals, Gordon!

by thezeekrecord



Category: Half Life VR But The AI Is Self Aware, Half Life VR But The AI Is Self-Aware, Portal (Video Game)
Genre: I am so sorry to anyone looking for regular half life fics and seeing this, This is a full swap so sometimes portal characters are mentioned working at black mesa
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-04
Updated: 2020-06-21
Packaged: 2021-03-03 03:34:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 21,034
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24008179
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thezeekrecord/pseuds/thezeekrecord
Summary: Gordon Freeman really should have worked at Black Mesa instead--surely, they wouldn't have let anything horrible happen to their employees, as opposed to Aperture Science. After being convinced to go into suspension for a future testing project, Gordon wakes up many years later with the AI that runs the facility trying to kill him. Making several new AI friends along the way, Gordon has to make it through the facility and find a way up to the safety of the surface.
Comments: 16
Kudos: 162





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> i have a disease that makes me write intricate niche interest fanfics for characters that aren't taken super seriously in their canon. please enjoy
> 
> edit: hey as an unfortunate addendum just because i've ended up seeing a LOT of really bad highly triggering stuff from people, especially on here, really quick: if you're an "anti anti" / "pro-shipper" / fetishize pedophilia, incest, rape/"non-con", then i don't want your support on my fics. i'm also not gonna argue this.
> 
> i guess as a quick update on this fic as well while i'm already here, i DO really want to finish this, i have everything already planned out so once i get back into it, it shouldn't be too much trouble. i've just gotten really caught up in writing other stuff right now (check out my other fic "could i try again, try again, try again?" for a good idea of what i'm doing right now lol) but someday i'll get back to this! thanks to everyone else's support on this fic, seeing other people's interest in a portal au really fuels me as a massive portal fan!

The true magic of a capitalist society is taking any number of fascinating, exciting jobs and mystically transforming them into a monotonous routine over the span of a few years—hell, maybe even months or weeks depending on how shitty the employer is. This was, unfortunately, the case for Gordon Freeman, who had the extreme displeasure of working for Aperture Science.

Gordon rushed through the office space on one of the upper levels, giving hasty greetings to his coworkers as he went. He glanced down at his watch, cursing to himself as he reached his desk. He scraped a few of his files together in his arms and plucked a USB drive from one of his drawers, struggling to consolidate these with his thermos of coffee before booking it for the nearest elevator. As he turned the corner, he watched as another employee started to step into the elevator.

“Wait! Hold the elevator!” Gordon called.

The other employee looked him dead in the eye and reached to one of the buttons inside. Instantly, the doors began to slide shut. Gordon growled as spite kicked in, giving him the boost of speed he was sure he’d need to make it to the elevator. He was nearly within reach of the door when a gray figure practically seemed to teleport in front of him. Gordon was powerless to stop now, crashing right into whoever it was full-force. The elevator doors closed gently as Gordon and the stranger fell, all of Gordon’s things scattering across the floor.

“Oh, shit, I’m so sorry.” Gordon apologized, wincing at the hot coffee that had spilled all over him and was now seeping into his clothes. “Are you alright?”

“I’ll be fine, Dr. Freeman.” A vaguely familiar voice responded.

Gordon finally met the person’s eye. He was an older white man with short, neatly groomed black hair, wearing a gray suit. He seemed to have taken damage from the coffee spill as well, but for how expensive the suit looked, he didn’t appear too bothered. The man reached to help Gordon collect his things.

“Oh, uhhh, thanks.” Gordon said sheepishly. “I’m sorry, do I know you?”

The man seemed greatly amused by this, letting out a low chuckle as he held out the USB drive. Gordon accepted it and stood, extending a hand to help him up, but the man stood on his own.

“No, I suppose you wouldn’t. I work with Aperture Science quite frequently, so I make a habit of trying to get to know its employees.” He explained.

Gordon couldn’t help but feel that wasn’t an adequate enough answer—there were far too many Aperture Science employees, how could he possibly have stood out enough to be known?—but decided against commenting on it. “Oh, uh, alright. Well, sorry again, but I gotta...”

“Yes, Mr. Freeman, you have a very busy day ahead of you.” The man nodded, brushing himself off. “Good luck today.”

“...Thanks.”

Gordon watched the man walk away before he hit the button again. “Fuckin’ weird.” He muttered to himself as he stepped into the elevator.

Getting to the test chamber he’d been scheduled to observe took forever, as was typical of Aperture Science. Sometimes, he felt like he spent more time walking between chambers than he did actually working; eventually, though, he finally made it only about 10 minutes late and plopped down in his chair.

“How’s the subject doing?” Gordon asked his coworker, sat at the other desk behind him. He looked down at the test subject below, shooting portals around with wild abandon—he must have been a new subject, Gordon thought.

“He’s been doing that since he got in.” His coworker replied with a sigh. “Sometimes, I wish I didn’t work this job just so I could still be excited by portals like that.”

“No kidding.” Gordon grumbled as he pushed his keyboard aside to lay out his files to dry. Then, he carefully cleaned off the USB drive on a dry part of his shirt before leaning down to plug it into the computer. He was supposed to have some work files and a few videos he’d downloaded to watch while waiting for test subjects—Youtube was blocked by Aperture’s internet, so he’d downloaded them at home to watch later for background noise—but none of that was what he found. Inside were dozens of folders containing programming files his computer couldn’t open. He swiftly removed it from the computer and inspected it closely. His USB was black and orange—this one was a bright yellow. “Oh, fuck.”

“What’s up?”

“I think I accidentally stole some dude’s USB.” Gordon replied, swiveling in his chair to face his coworker. “I bumped into this guy in a gray suit on my way in. He knew my name and said he ‘works with Aperture Science quite frequently’, I don’t know—”

“Did he say it exactly like that? That weird intonation and everything?” His coworker questioned.

“Yeah?”

“Dude, I think that was that big sponsor guy.” She said, eyes wide as she looked at the USB. “He pays an _insane_ amount of money for Aperture to make shit for him. Did you see what was on it?”

“Kinda? It was just a bunch of program files I couldn’t look at.” Gordon answered, his palms quickly growing sweaty. “Fuck, I’d better give it back.”

Gordon stopped as an alarm in the observation room went off. He turned to the test subject below, finding him collapsed on the floor.

“Just give it to a supervisor later, they’ll figure it out.” His coworker said hurriedly, reaching for a phone at her desk. “I’ll call the medical team. Can you run down and check on him?”

“How the hell did he even get hurt in there? This is like, one of the easiest tests.” Gordon grumbled. He set the USB aside on the desk before he stood and exited the observation room, skipping steps down the catwalk to reach the chamber’s entrance. He was lying face-down on the floor, no injury immediately apparent. He placed his hand over the subject’s mouth, feeling gentle, even breaths, so he decided to leave him as he was until the medical team arrived. After a few moments, the subject stirred and opened his eyes. When he met Gordon’s eye, he jolted up suddenly and scrambled away.

“What the fuck, man?” He spat, holding his portal gun defensively. “Why the hell did you do that?”

“What? Do what?”

“You knocked me out!” He accused, putting a hand to the back of his head.

“What? I was in the observation room this whole time!” Gordon argued, gesturing to the glass above them. “The medical team’s on their way. You probably have a concussion or something.”

“Yeah, I probably do, _asshole._ ” The subject growled.

Gordon decided not to push it, just making sure the subject remained safe until the medical team arrived and whisked him away. Gordon headed back up to the observation room and sat down as they were swiftly given a replacement subject. This one worked much faster, giving him very little time to think of anything besides work. It was only when a familiar voice spoke over the intercom that Gordon remembered the USB.

 **“Gordon Freeman. You are wanted at the front office. Please report back to your desk.”** The voice of Aperture’s signature AI, VOX, said in his usual stereotypically robotic, faltering tone.

“Ohhhh, shit.” His coworker said with a laugh. “He must be looking for the USB.”

“Shut up, at least I can give it back now.” Gordon retorted, playful but anxious as he searched for it on his desk. He frowned, finding it nowhere in sight. He moved all his papers and lifted the keyboard. “Hey, did you move it somewhere?”

“Huh?”

“The USB. Did you move it?” Gordon repeated, turning to face her.

“No, you grabbed it earlier, remember?” She said, tilting her head curiously. “When you left to go check on that test subject who passed out, you came back in and grabbed it.”

“What? No I didn’t.”

“You did! You were like, ‘whoops, wouldn’t wanna lose that, am I right?’” She said, mocking his voice in an overly goofy manner.

“Okay, first off, I don’t talk like that. Second off, I absolutely did not do that.” Gordon knelt down to search the floor. “Lastly, if this is a joke, knock it off, alright?”

“That’d be a shitty joke to play, Gordon. Just check your pockets.”

Gordon patted his pockets furiously to no avail. He searched the entire room after that, up until VOX urged him to get moving. Gordon sighed in defeat and stood. “Well, if I get fired over this, I’ll just apply to Black Mesa again.”

“Pff. Put in a good word for me if you get in.”

“Yeah, sure.”

Gordon headed back up, frowning as he reached his desk to find someone he’d been avoiding for quite a while. He had to resist giving the man a look of resentment.

“Oh, hey, you’re uhh...the head of that future testing project, right?” Gordon asked politely.

“That’s right! I’m Dr. Colvin.” The man replied enthusiastically, holding out a hand. “So you probably know what I’m here for.”

Gordon shook his hand and nodded. “Yeah, I have a pretty good guess.”

“I was looking at your file to see if you were a good fit and I noticed you haven’t been logging your monthly testing quotas.” Dr. Colvin noted, holding out a sheet meant to log time he spent as a test subject for him to look at. “Is this a mistake, or...?”

“Uhhh...no, it’s not.” Gordon answered uncomfortably. “I just...haven’t gotten around to that.”

“Gordon, I’m sure you know that’s pretty serious.” Dr. Colvin said, his cheery tone dropping just a little bit. “All employees are required to sign up for testing. If you refuse, that could lead to termination.”

“Yeah, yeah, I know.” Gordon said uneasily.

“If you sign up for the future testing project, though...” Dr. Colvin went on, slipping the sheet back into his folder, “we could get started on that monthly quota and forget you never signed up prior to this.”

It took all of Gordon’s willpower to resist an exhausted sigh. Of course. This was classic Aperture bullshit, he thought to himself—threatening employees with termination over dumb policies to get them to sign up for unreasonable projects. It had only been a matter of time before something like this happened to him. He had a brief fantasy of quitting on the spot just to spite the man, but he knew his finances couldn’t take a hit like that.

“...How long would I be asleep?” Gordon asked.

“The minimum is six months, the maximum is a year.” Dr. Colvin explained, pulling out a packet from his folder and holding it out to Gordon. “Once you get this all filled out, we’ll take care of everything. Rent and other essential expenses will be handled by us, and you’ll still get paid for the full time you’re in suspension, plus some. Frankly, it’s more like a paid vacation than anything else.”

A few snippy comments floated around in Gordon’s head— _you don’t get put into an induced coma for a vacation, dumbass_ being a notable one—but he simply nodded and accepted the paperwork. “Alright. I’ll get this filled out when I get the chance.”

“Oh, don’t worry about getting back to work. I’ll let your supervisor know you’re signing up for the future testing program. You’ll be scheduled to go into suspension within the next couple of days, so you’ll have that time off to get everything sorted.” Dr. Colvin said dismissively.

“Wh—couple days? I thought I’d have longer to prepare!” Gordon complained, dropping the packet on his desk.

“Yes, that should be an appropriate amount of time to get yourself ready for suspension.”

Gordon wanted to argue it further, but remembered the threat looming over his head and gave in. He plopped down in his chair and grabbed a pen. “Okay, yeah, sure. I’ll drop this by your office when I’m done.”

“Thank you very much, Mr. Freeman! I look forward to working with you in the future.”


	2. Commemorative Send-Off Party

Gordon frequently had dreams in which he was falling. He’d looked it up once; not that he bought into dream psychology as a hard and fast science, but he’d been waiting on a particularly slow test subject to solve their allotted puzzle, and the bored curiosity took over as he clicked on the first result. _You are feeling overwhelmed and out of control in some situation in your waking life. This may reflect the way you feel in your relationship or in your work environment._ Well, sure, working at Aperture Science could make anyone feel overwhelmed and out of control, he had thought.

This was different, though. He’d woken in a sweaty panic, that nauseating pit gripping his stomach just like always, but this was the first time in his life he’d been woken up by _actually_ falling.

Gordon’s scream was drowned out by the ear-splitting crash of metal against metal. Half a second later, he had the fortune of landing directly back into the safety of a relatively squishy, moldy mattress. He blinked hard several times as his eyes were slow to focus, frozen in place by a mixture of terror, shock, and the lack of cooperation from his stiff muscles. He let out a few tense breaths as he finally began to process a voice speaking to him over a staticy speaker.

“ _You have been in suspension for,_ nine. Nine. Nine...nine. Nine. Nine...”

Gordon glanced around the room as he managed to push himself into a sitting position. Where the fuck was he, again? It was vaguely familiar, but the details were fuzzy. He was here voluntarily for sure—something about...a job...? He didn’t have much time to think on it, however, as he glanced out a hole that had been punctured into the wall by what appeared to be railing around a catwalk. The room lurched forward with a high pitched groan, threatening to send Gordon flying out of his bed. Whatever the room had landed on, it wasn’t gonna hold for long. He threw himself to his feet, collapsing onto the floor in a moment of weakness before he managed to scramble to the railing. He had to punch through the drywall to make enough room for him to squeeze out, but with barely a second to spare, he managed to pull himself over the railing and land hard on his back on the catwalk before the little box room he’d been sleeping in plummeted to its demise.

Gordon just laid there for a long moment, breathing hard, collecting himself. Eventually, he finally dragged himself up to his feet. Thousands more of those rooms hung suspended from rails, each labeled with names and...were those _expiration dates?_ Feeling nauseous and sweaty, Gordon unzipped his orange jumper and tied the sleeves around his waist. He was going to have to find a supervisor or something, but he knew one thing for certain: he was _not_ going back into suspension.

He was about to turn to find where the catwalk led before movement caught his eye. Another room had broken off from its rail, sending it down into the pit below. Gordon’s breath caught as he watched it go. Whoever was in there was _definitely_ dead. Who the fuck designed these rails? How many more people had died in Aperture Science this way?

“Ohh, that’s horrible. It’s horrible that happened.” A deadpan voice echoed from the distance, no remorse or empathy showing through in their tone.

Gordon searched for the source, but found no one else within sight. He cupped his hands over his mouth and called out. “Hello? Who’s out there?”

“Wha...?”

“Hey, you!” Gordon called again. “Where are you?”

Gordon could hear a quiet, mechanical _whirr_ slowly approach. Something appeared around the corner of one of the rooms—a core attached to a separate rail that came to follow the catwalk. He watched him with a dark blue eye, the upper eyelid drooped down in what gave him a disapproving expression. Gordon had known about the cores and worked with a couple of them at the start of the AI employee integration project, but they were always accompanied by a human counterpart—not given free reign like this.

“Oh, you’re alive.” The core said flatly.

“Yeah, against all fucking odds.” Gordon replied with an incredulous laugh. “What the hell is going on with the rails? I’m pretty sure I just watched another guy die!”

“I didn’t think any of the people in them were still alive.” The core said, glancing around at the thousands of other rooms. “Pretty sure all of ‘em are either dead or close to it, so...”

“Well—what—I mean, _I’m_ clearly still alive, so I can’t be the only one, right? What even happened to everyone?”

“I dunno, we just haven’t needed ‘em for a while.” The core went on. “You’re probably not even allowed to be in here anymore.”

“ _What?_ Did I fucking get fired while I was asleep?” Gordon demanded. “Look man, I got hired to do this! They paid me money to put me in suspension for future testing! Well, I didn’t get paid _yet,_ but I was gonna—you know what? Doesn’t matter. You’re a core, you can like, look me up in the system, right?”

“It’s not gonna matter!” The core said defensively. “I just know you’re not allowed in here.”

“What are you, some kind of security core?” Gordon asked, squinting and leaning over the rail to get a closer look at him. “Can I talk to like, a _human?_ Any human?”

“What? No.”

“Why not?”

“I’m gonna have to escort you.” The core said suddenly, moving down the rail along the catwalk.

Gordon had to struggle against his aching muscles to keep up with him. “What, you’re gonna escort me out?”

The core didn’t respond to that. It wasn’t like Gordon knew the way out from here, anyway, and if he was getting escorted to the front entrance, maybe at least then he could talk to someone at reception. The AI employee integration program must have progressed pretty far if they had AI security now, Gordon mused, but he was certain he could bet on reception remaining human. He followed the core in silence for a while, eventually heading through a hallway away from all the other people in suspension. The lighting was dim, and even as they moved through what appeared to be conference rooms, Gordon didn’t see a single other person.

“Hey, what’s the date today?” Gordon asked the core.

“Uhhh, I dunno.”

“What? Why not? Shouldn’t you like, have a clock installed in you or something?”

“Have a _what_?”

“A _clock_ _installed in you._ What did you think I said?”

“Huh?”

“What did you think I said?” Gordon repeated.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about, bro.” The core muttered as he led Gordon to an open freight elevator. Gordon stepped in and pressed the button, and the core disappeared down the rail as the elevator jerked downward. He let out a breath, halfway between a tense sigh and frustrated growl.

“Fucking defective or something.” He grumbled to himself.

As the elevator came to a stop at another catwalk, the core rejoined him, and they continued on their way. Gordon had been well aware of how massive Aperture was, but it felt like he had followed the core for at least an hour until they finally came to a stop at a door. After the core made a couple beeping noises at it, it slid open, and Gordon was met by an all too familiar voice accompanied by a telltale thin, red laser focusing directly on his chest.

“ _Target acquired._ ” The cartoonishly gruff voice said.

Gordon dove out of the way instinctively as deafening gunfire filled the room. He was still in the turret’s range, but he knew from watching countless tests with them they could be slow to catch up if the test subject moved fast. Without thinking, he launched himself at the turret, effectively knocking it off its feet—but the momentum sent them both flying towards the glass at the end of the small room. Together, Gordon and the turret smashed right through it and landed hard onto the bright white tile of the room below. Gordon kicked the turret away from him as it shouted expletives and fired wildly into the walls and ceiling before powering down.

Without the immediate danger of the turret to focus on, Gordon finally looked at his new surroundings. It was a test chamber; what he’d been in before must have been the observation room. It wasn’t a chamber he recognized, but that wouldn’t be unusual, he thought as he painstakingly stood and checked himself for injuries. He’d been shot once in the shoulder—the bullet was only barely halfway lodged into his skin with a pathetic trickle of blood—and the side he’d landed on was sore, but he didn’t think he’d broken anything. He backed up to try and get a good look into the observation room.

“Hey! Security core!” He called.

No reply.

“Hello?” A different voice rang out over the intercom.

“Hey!” Gordon yelled back. “I just woke up from suspension! I thought that security core was gonna lead me to the exit, but I think—did he just try to _kill_ me...?”

“No.” The security core called back suddenly.

“Who are you?” The voice over the intercom asked. A moment later, a couple panels on the ceiling by the corner parted, making way for another core to enter. Gordon couldn’t help but feel a pang of disappointment at the lack of human contact—how far had the AI integration program gone since he went into suspension? Regardless, he approached the core to talk to him. This one had a bright yellow eye that stared down at him curiously.

“I’m Dr. Gordon Freeman. I—”

“My name’s Tommy.” The yellow core interrupted, his lower eyelid raising up into what seemed to be his version of a smile.

“Hello, Tommy.” Gordon replied hastily. “I was kinda hoping to find someone I could talk to about suspension. I woke up when the rail holding my room up broke, but the fucking—the security core told me most everyone else is dead...?”

“Well, yeah. We haven’t used humans for testing for a while, Mr. Freeman.” Tommy answered, far too innocently for such an ominous statement.

“What—what do you mean? Did something go wrong with the life support or something?”

Tommy took a long moment to process the question, looking away as he thought. “Probably...? We phased out human employees a really long time ago. I can’t really remember.”

Gordon paused to absorb this response. “Phased out...human employees? Are you saying there’s no more humans working at Aperture Science?”

Before Tommy could answer, the door leading into the test chamber slid open. Gordon watched as two fully autonomous robots stepped in, sporting dual portal devices. One was short and similarly round to the cores, its head set into the center of its body. Its single eye glowed a deep green as it led the way into the test chamber confidently. The second one was taller with an oval-shaped body, arms set at the sides of its head with a light blue eye, and walked in much less enthusiastically than the first. After a moment, the second one finally took notice to Gordon as the first surveyed the materials they had to work with for the test.

“What the—who the hell are you?” The tall robot demanded, jabbing his portal gun towards Gordon as if it’d do any damage. Regardless of the low threat level, Gordon took a tentative step back and put his hands up in surrender.

“I’m Dr. Freeman! Dr. Gordon Freeman!” He blurted out. “I just woke up, I don’t know anything!”

“Ah, hello, human!” The other robot greeted kindly. “I haven’t seen a human ever since I was born!”

“Yeah, there’s not supposed to be any left in the facility!” The tall robot snapped.

“See? You’re not supposed to be here!” The security bot yelled from the observation room.

“Hi, Benry.” Tommy called.

“Tommy!” The security bot shouted back.

“Wait, wait, everyone stop for a second!” Gordon interrupted harshly. “Can we slow the fuck down for a minute? How long have I been asleep?”

“Well, I can’t be certain of how long you in particular were in suspension, but the Cooperative Testing Initiative began 23 years ago, so I imagine you went into suspension well before that.” The short robot answered thoughtfully.

Gordon felt a pit drop in his stomach. He stumbled back to lean against the wall behind him, lifting his uninjured arm to press his palm against his forehead. “ _23 years?_ I’ve been asleep for 23 years?? Why didn’t anyone wake me up? Why did they just let all the humans in suspension _die?_ ”

“I’m afraid we phased out all human employees quite a long time ago, Gordon.” The short robot said matter-of-factly, very little sympathy in his tone.

“ _What the fuck does that mean?_ ” Gordon demanded. “‘Phase out human employees’? That’s—well, actually, okay, I can believe that about Aperture. But why wouldn’t you wake up the humans in suspension??”

“That’s not really my department.” Tommy replied sheepishly.

“No, not you specifically, Tommy. I mean in general. You can’t tell me during all that transition, nobody thought to wake up the test subjects.”

“I suppose it just didn’t come up.” The short robot shrugged.

“Listen, there’s gotta be _someone_ I can talk to about this. I was only supposed to be in suspension for like, a _year_ at the most. I haven’t paid my car payments or my rent, I won’t have anywhere to go! I’m probably considered legally dead at this point!” Gordon rambled, sliding down the wall to sit on the floor. “Someone’s gotta help me out here! I wasn’t supposed to be asleep that long!”

“Come now, I’m sure everything will be alright.” The short robot comforted, placing a cold, wiry hand on his injured shoulder. Gordon winced and pulled away. “Oh, are you hurt?”

“Yeah, I mean, I got shot by that turret over there, and I’m pretty sure that was that security guy trying to fucking _kill_ me—is his name Benrey?”

“Benry.” Benry repeated from the observation room.

“Yeah, whatever. It’s not deadly or anything, but it’d be great if I could get to an infirmary.” Gordon went on. “You probably don’t have anyone working in those anymore, do you?”

“Of course not! There hasn’t been a human in the facility in over twenty years!” The tall robot chastised.

“Yeah, that figures.” Gordon grumbled to himself as he leaned his head back against the wall. “Y’know, I’m pretty upset and all, but the worst part is I’m not even surprised. This is some classic Aperture Science shit here. I _knew_ I shouldn’t have let them talk me into going into suspension. Hell, I should’ve tried harder to get into Black Mesa.”

“Now, Gordon, I understand you’re upset, but we all know Aperture Science is far superior to Black Mesa.” The short robot scolded.

“Yeah, yeah.” Gordon waved his hand dismissively. “I’d _really_ like to get out of here, though. Can one of you point me the way out?”

“We’re pretty far into the testing area right now, Mr. Freeman. Most of the back rooms and catwalks were demolished to make room for more testing tracks, so getting you out could get pretty tricky.” Tommy informed.

“ _If_ he can even get out.” The tall robot scoffed. “Only VOX can control the surface elevators now, and I’m sure the minute he knows he’s here, he’ll order for him to be terminated.”

“ _Terminated?_ ” Gordon echoed in disbelief. “VOX will fucking kill me?”

“Well, yes, Gordon. Like I said, we phased out human employees a long time ago.” The short robot said nonchalantly.

“That is...a fucking ominous thing to say right after telling me VOX will kill me if he finds me.” Gordon said, leaning back against the wall again and glancing up warily at the camera pointed directly at him. “So—so I should probably try to avoid getting caught, right? The testing tracks are all monitored!”

“Yeah, but VOX isn’t monitoring all the testing at once.” Tommy pointed out. “I oversee some of the testing while he works on other projects.”

“Okay, so there’s that, at least.” Gordon relaxed a little bit. “So how the hell do I get out if only VOX controls the surface elevators? Isn’t there any other way?”

The group paused for a long moment contemplatively before the tall robot spoke again.

“This isn’t my problem! We have testing to do!” He said impatiently. “Come on, Coomer. He’s going to die pretty soon, anyway.”

The short robot—Coomer?—watched as the tall robot stepped further into the chamber, but didn’t move to follow. He turned back to Gordon with a conflicted look.

“Well, Gordon, I wouldn’t say your chances of making it out of Aperture are very high. But I do feel compelled to help.” He said.

The tall robot turned and stared at him incredulously. “ _What?_ And risk our lives for a human?”

“Yes!” Coomer answered, as if it was a completely obvious conclusion to come to. He turned back to Gordon. “I haven’t known you for very long, but I feel it’s critical to help you on your journey.”

“I appreciate that very much, Coomer.” Gordon replied with a sigh of relief.

“I don’t!” The tall robot argued. “I just want to get back to work! How the hell would we even get him to the surface, anyway?”

“There _might_ be a way, but...” Tommy looked away sheepishly with a long pause. “It would violate a lot of Aperture Science policies if I did it.”

“You, too?!” The tall robot exclaimed. “You do realize if we go against VOX, he’ll fucking _incinerate_ us, right?”

“But he’s the only human we’ve seen in years!” Tommy argued. “He just wants to go home. I think we should help him.”

“Yes, Bubby, I think it’s the least we can do after all this.” Coomer insisted gently.

“Tommy, I don’t really care about Aperture policy if my _life_ is on the line.” Gordon said, approaching Tommy again. “If you have a way out of here, I wanna hear it!”

“Welllll...” Tommy slid back and forth on his rail a bit, as though he were fidgeting thoughtfully. “I don’t know...maybe I could just take you to my office instead. You’d be safe in there. Not even VOX can get in or see into it. That’s where I keep my dog.”

“No offense, but I’m not sure I wanna be kept in your office for the rest of my life.” Gordon said flatly. “That’s probably not even great for your dog. Dogs need to be able to go outside.”

Tommy went quiet again for a few seconds. “Okay, well...if I can get to the right place, I could probably override VOX’s control of the elevator for a second to let you out.”

“Wait, Tommy.” Bubby interjected, looking at Tommy closely. “You have a way of overriding VOX’s controls? And you _never_ brought this up?”

“Because it’s against Aperture Science policy!” Tommy replied defensively.

Their conversation was interrupted by a familiar voice that sent a chill down Gordon’s spine.

“ **Gordon Freeman. You are no longer authorized to be in the Aperture Science facility.** ” VOX said, his voice exactly as robotic as he remembered—all these other AIs had highly expressive voices, had they never been compelled to update VOX’s speech? Two panels opened off to the side of the chamber, leading to a catwalk. “ **Please proceed to the exit and you will be escorted to the Aperture Science Former Employee Send-Off Chamber.** ”

Gordon’s blood went cold as he looked at the robots around him. “The...send-off chamber?”

“ **Yes.** ”

“Is...that what it sounds like?”

“ **The Aperture Science Former Employee Send-Off Chamber is not threatening. Please proceed to the exit.** ”

“What’s gonna happen to me when I go into the send-off chamber?”

There was a long pause before VOX spoke again. “ **You will be sent off. With a commemorative party celebrating your contributions to Aperture Science. Please proceed to the exit.** ”

“Uhhh...can I just...skip that? And go straight to the surface?”

Another pause. “ **Are you certain you wish to skip your Aperture Science Former Employee Commemorative Send-Off Party?** ”

“...Yeah.”

“ **Very well. Please stand still.** ”

Gordon looked up as the panels directly above him began to part. Above the hole in the chamber was dark—he couldn’t quite make out what was sliding into place, but it was square, and about the size of four panels. Whatever it was, Gordon knew it couldn’t be good, but for a moment, he was frozen into place.

“ _Run,_ Mr. Freeman!” Tommy suddenly exclaimed.

Gordon sprang into action, diving out of the way just as the massive thing came crashing down. He landed hard on his chest and quickly scrambled to his feet, watching as a crusher began to slowly free itself from the panels below. The spikes scraped loudly against the holes they’d made in the floor while he searched his surroundings wildly. If he just followed the catwalk, surely he’d be sent straight to his death, but he had nowhere else to go. His eyes locked onto a beacon of hope in the distance, beyond the newly made exit in the room—what appeared to be an open, unfinished test chamber with plenty of portal surfaces. Gordon lunged for Bubby, snatching his portal gun right out of his hands and fumbling with the controls for a moment.

“Hey! My gun!” Bubby protested, reaching to take it back from Gordon.

Gordon took careful aim as the crusher began to reposition itself over him again. He squinted one eye shut and fired the first portal at the distant unfinished chamber. Bubby grabbed onto Gordon’s injured arm harshly, trying to wrench the gun away from him, but Gordon held on tight and fired a portal directly below him with little hesitation. Gordon and Bubby tumbled together into the unfinished chamber in a heap. Gordon barely had enough time to pull himself to his feet before Coomer followed right behind them.

“Fine shooting, Dr. Freeman!” He complimented as he landed expertly beside Gordon.

“ **Gordon Freeman. Bubby. Coomer. Tommy. You are all in violation of Aperture Science policy. Please return to Test Chamber 78.** ” VOX’s voice echoed around them.

“Don’t drag _me_ into this! Just give me my fucking gun back!” Bubby protested. “If I let anything happen to it, VOX will incinerate me!”

Gordon took several long steps away from Bubby, searching desperately for his next step as the crusher began to make its way towards them. There was a catwalk several feet away, but no portal surfaces that easily led him to it. Gordon steeled himself and repositioned the portal against the back wall of the unfinished chamber, taking a calming breath before firing another portal directly below him. It wasn’t enough momentum to clear the room at first, but Gordon had watched subjects do this countless times—as he plummeted towards the floor, he fired a new portal just before hitting the tile, sending him flying to the catwalk. He only just barely made it close enough to grab onto the railing one-handed. He tried desperately to pull himself up onto the catwalk properly, but his muscles burned from the effort, still weak from suspension.

“Ohhh, fuck!” Gordon shouted as his grip slipped a little, palm slick with sweat. “Coomer! Tommy! Anyone, help!!”

A flash of blue filled Gordon’s vision before it settled into semi-transparency. A funnel of light had surrounded him, easing him upward, as though gravity had simply given up on him. As he drifted above the catwalk, he reached to the railing with his foot and pulled himself out of the funnel, landing unsteadily on the catwalk.

“Good work, Tommy!” Coomer called as he scooped up Bubby into his arms, firing two portals similar to Gordon’s. He landed gracefully on the catwalk in front of Gordon and released Bubby.

“Don’t ever do that again!” Bubby snapped.

Gordon looked up, finding the crusher was already positioning itself above them. “Guys, let’s go!” He shouted, urging the two robots forward.

Coomer and Bubby booked it down the catwalk much faster than Gordon could manage. As the crusher smashed down into the catwalk, part of its supports crumpled behind them, tilting the walkway downward into the pit below. Gordon and the robots practically had to climb up to a relatively undamaged section before they could start running again, quickly turning a corner where the catwalk was positioned snugly between two test chambers. Gordon watched as Tommy joined them along the rail above them.

“Follow me!” He called, turning another corner to the right.

Coomer, Bubby, and Gordon all complied without hesitation, following Tommy down a series of precarious paths. They jumped through strategically placed portals, ran down conveyor belts carrying broken machinery, and climbed down sections of the vents that spiraled downward until they reached another catwalk. Tommy led them to the end of it and indicated to a path far below them.

“I can’t make that jump! I don’t have long fall boots, I’ll break my legs!” Gordon protested.

“Oh, shit, ummm...” Tommy started looking around for anything to help as Coomer turned to Gordon.

“Not to worry, Gordon, I’ll help!” He said cheerily. Then in one, swift motion, he scooped Gordon up in his arms. Gordon yelped in surprise as Coomer leapt over the rail with ease, followed by Bubby. They were close to the path Tommy had indicated to before something slammed against them hard, sending them flying in the wrong direction. Gordon and Bubby screamed as they spun of control, only coming to a stop once they landed perfectly into one of those zero-gravity funnels pointed to the side. Coomer released Gordon as they were propelled gently forward.

“Tommy!” Bubby called. “Tommy, is this your beam?”

“No!” Tommy called back in dismay as he caught up to them on a rail.

“Ohhh, fuck, you guys are headed straight for VOX’s chamber.” Benry spoke suddenly, in a characteristically deadpan voice that showed absolutely no sympathy for them.

“What do we do now?” Gordon asked anxiously.

“ **Tommy. Report to my chamber.** ” VOX’s voice interrupted.

Tommy glanced between Gordon and the direction the funnel was sending them in with a conflicted expression.

“You’re not seriously thinking about going, are you?!” Gordon questioned in disbelief. “We’re already breaking Aperture policy, you don’t have to listen to him!”

“Yeah, but...”

“ **Tommy. Report to my chamber,** **_now._ **”

“Maybe I can clear this up before you get there.” Tommy suggested hopefully as he continued down the rail ahead of them.

Gordon smacked his hand to his face. “Seriously?! He’s just gonna go talk to VOX?”

“This is your fault, Gordon! You stole my fucking portal gun and now I’m gonna get incinerated!” Bubby exclaimed, pointing an accusing finger at Gordon.

“ _I_ was gonna die if I didn’t!” Gordon argued. “It wasn’t like I did it to hurt you! We could’ve escaped together!”

“Yeah, and now we’re _all_ gonna die, you motherfucker!” Bubby snatched his portal gun back from Gordon, holding it close to what would be his chest. “Nice going, you just killed yourself and three innocent bystanders!”

“Yeah, good going, dipshit.” Benry chimed in, following them along leisurely.

“This isn’t my fault!” Gordon fumed. “Don’t fucking blame me, I’m not the one who’s about to actually kill us!”

Gordon and Bubby argued the entire way to VOX’s chamber. It was a massive cylindrical room attached to a mess of hallways—he hadn’t been inside himself before, but he’d seen plenty of it from the outside on his way to test chambers. Gordon clutched his stomach as anxious nausea washed over him. He watched panels open to make way for them, and they could do nothing but simply let themselves get carried into the chamber. Once inside, the beam promptly shut off, leaving him to land heavily on his feet below the massive robot he’d only heard the voice of.

“ **Gordon Freeman. You are not authorized to be in the Aperture Science facility.** ” VOX repeated, his hulking body surprisingly versatile as he leaned downward to look at Gordon. His eye glowed a bright, blood red, the plastic covering of what was meant to be the shell over his head missing—there was only the wire backing that was supposed to support it, making his circular, core-like head fully visible. He stared down at Gordon with what looked like disdain as three metal claws descended from the ceiling. Gordon started to scramble out of the way, but couldn’t escape in time before it latched onto the back of his shirt and lifted him up. The other two took Bubby and Coomer as well, leaving them all helpless.

“Wait, you don’t have to kill me!” Gordon blurted out, kicking his legs fruitlessly as the claw swung him around the chamber. “You can just send me up to the surface! I won’t come back, I swear!”

“ **You wouldn’t say that if you already knew what was going on outside.** ” VOX replied as the claw came to a stop over a large, gray tube built into the floor. The covering over the tube began to slide open slowly, revealing a flickering orange glow.

“What? What’s going on outside??”

“ **Goodbye, Gordon Freeman.** ”

“No!! Wait, wait, seriously man, don’t do this!” Gordon shrieked as he began to slip from the claw’s grasp. He reached over his head and grabbed onto it, just barely tight enough to hang on after it released him. “I was put in suspension for future testing, so—so I can test! I can help!”

“ **I already have more test subjects than I’ll ever need. I have no use for a human test subject.** ”

Gordon scrambled desperately to get a better grip on the metal claw, but he was slipping fast. “Right, right, you have robot test subjects, but isn’t there anything you can’t test for with a robot? What about—uhhhh—p-psychological effects? Or, ummm...health effects from extended portal usage?” He rambled. “And I know a lot about the portals, I helped study them, that was my job!! You know my name, so you remember the work I did, right?”

**“I remember you. You were frequently late and refused to participate in the mandatory employee testing initiative until you signed up for the future testing project.”**

“What about the mixed cooperative tests?” Tommy suddenly chimed in. Gordon found him tight in the grip of a fourth metal claw already, closer to VOX’s side than anyone else.

VOX paused, watching Gordon struggle to keep his grip on the claw. He seemed to consider this for a long time before the incinerator slid shut below him. Gordon let go of the claw, landing dangerously on the cover and sliding to the floor in front of it. He let out a deep, relieved sigh and stood.

 **“I** **_have_ ** **been curious about that.”** VOX said contemplatively.

“Right! I can totally help with whatever that is!” Gordon nodded enthusiastically. “And if I do...could you not kill me when we’re done?”

VOX didn’t reply.

“...Uhh, okay, we can talk about that later.” Gordon said hopefully. “So...what’s gonna happen with Tommy, Bubby, and Coomer?”

**“They violated Aperture Science policy by abandoning their test and will be incinerated.”**

“You don’t _have_ to though!” Gordon argued. “I mean, if they hadn’t helped me, I’d be dead, and you wouldn’t be able to run those tests!”

VOX was quiet for a moment. **“...They** **_have_ ** **already had contact with you. They could prove useful...”**

Gordon relaxed a little as everyone else was promptly dropped to the floor. “Thank you, VOX.”

**“Bubby. Please surrender your dual portal device to Gordon Freeman. I will provide long fall boots momentarily.”**

“What?!” Bubby exclaimed. “Why mine?”

**“Please surrender your dual portal device.”**

Bubby let out a long, defeated mock sigh and held out the portal gun to Gordon. Gordon accepted it as panels in the ceiling parted for a vent, which quickly dispensed a pair of long fall boots. He hurried over to scoop them up. After a moment of struggling, he managed to get them on, leaning back on them experimentally as VOX continued.

**“Gordon Freeman. Please proceed to the exit and you will be escorted to the appropriate testing track. You will first participate in solo tests to judge your testing ability. Tommy, Bubby, Coomer. Wait here.”**

Gordon followed VOX’s directions clumsily—the boots were harder to walk in than he had expected—finding Benry waiting for him on the other side of the door.

“So _you’re_ gonna escort me?” Gordon asked flatly.

Benry immediately turned to lead Gordon through the now defunct human workspace. “It’s just my job, man, leave me alone.”

“Can I ask you something? Did you lead me to that turret on purpose, or was that an accident?” Gordon questioned as he stepped over a chair that had been knocked over.

“Wha...?”

“The turret! When you were ‘escorting’ me before. Were you trying to kill me?”

“I dunno, dude, that was like, five hours ago.” Benry replied as he led him to an abrupt ending to the workspace. It looked like the hall had been hastily sliced apart, the other side nowhere in sight with the exterior wall to a testing track just across a massive pit. A funnel blinked to life in front of Gordon, so he hesitantly stepped into it, letting it carry him away from VOX’s chamber. Benry’s rail moved high above Gordon as he followed him along the funnel’s path.

“Are you okay, man?” Gordon called up to him. “It seems like you’re glitching out or something.”

“Wow, that’s fucking rude.” Benry grumbled.

“Getting me shot was pretty fucking rude, too!”

“Yeah, that’s not a big deal.”

Gordon growled in defeat, letting them fall into a long silence as they proceeded to the appropriate testing track. As they arrived, panels shifted to let Gordon inside, but these ones produced a loud grinding sound as they moved. Gordon looked around curiously as he entered the chamber. Everything else he’d seen was in great shape, but this chamber looked like it hadn’t been touched in many long years—the surfaces of many panels were either broken or missing, and the ones that remained in acceptable condition were caked in dirt or mold. Gordon landed somewhat easily on his feet after the beam shut off.

**“Your testing begins now. Please proceed.”**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so regarding the amount of time gordon was in suspension: i looked around if there was a definitive answer on how long chell was in suspension in portal 2, and i found the devs said they liked to imagine 50k years, which feels like an absolutely wild number to me. i'd always assumed it was the same amount of time that passed between half life 1 and 2, so i ran with that--this takes place approximately the same time as half life 2!


	3. Mixed Cooperative Testing

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Gordon and his new AI companions need to come up in a plan in order to survive against VOX.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hey thanks to everyone who left kudos and comments!!!!! i wanted to reply individually but i never really know what to say gsdhkgsddf so thank u to everyone who took the time to show interest, i didn't think this would get much attention!! i'm really excited to keep this going and see what y'all think!

Gordon stared at the test chamber. He didn’t have much to work with, and the room was small, but he recognized the layout in an instant. There was a thick red laser pointed from the floor directly up at the ceiling, sparks flying from where the laser hit the panel above, and what seemed to be the laser’s target set into the floor to the right of it. Surely, it was the exact same principle as the first test implementing the High Energy Pellet—a test he’d watched countless subjects solve over and over.

“Hello, Gordon!” Coomer’s voice echoed from above. Gordon looked up, finding Bubby and Coomer standing in what was sure to be the sad remnants of the observation room. The glass was already long shattered, giving him a clear view of them. Coomer waved enthusiastically at Gordon as Bubby sat on one of the old tables.

“Oh, hey guys!” Gordon yelled back. Tommy appeared into the room as well, followed by Benry.

“Don’t fuck up.” Benry shouted into the room.

 **“** **Coomer. Benry. You are required to keep contact with the test subject to a minimum."** VOX said over the intercom. **“Gordon Freeman, please proceed.”**

Gordon huffed and aimed the portal gun, shooting one portal where the laser made contact with the ceiling and another above the laser’s target. In an instant, the platform that had become submerged in a puddle of muddy water groaned to life, drawing upward slowly. Gordon jogged to it and hopped on before it reached too high as he heard the exit slide open.

“Fine work, Dr. Freeman!” Coomer encouraged.

Gordon proceeded through several test chambers this way. His new entourage of robots followed him through a few chambers in similar states of disrepair, watching him progress with relative ease. As he was recovering from the rush of being launched to the other side of the fifth chamber by something described to him as an “aerial faith plate”, Benry and Bubby were loudly chastising him for being so shaken before the test chamber shook with a low _boom_ in the distance. Gordon looked around anxiously as VOX spoke up.

**“Tommy. Please oversee the following tests until I return.”**

“Okay!” Tommy replied obediently.

Gordon looked up, as if he could tell whether VOX was gone or not, before turning to the others in their observation room. “Hey, listen, I don’t know how long this is gonna be going on, but shouldn’t we try to come up with a plan here? I’m pretty sure once these tests are done, VOX is gonna like, kill all of us. Except probably Benry, I don’t know about him.”

“Yeah, and whose fault is _that?_ ” Bubby demanded.

“Come on, man, don’t blame me!” Gordon argued. He let out a long growl and dragged his hand down his face. “We don’t have time to talk about that, though. What are we gonna do?”

“I guess I could still call you an elevator...” Tommy said contemplatively. “But I don’t really know what we’ll do when you go.”

“Well, do you like, have to be here to survive?” Gordon asked. “I mean, do you have to stay plugged into the rails and stuff? You all could come to the surface with me.”

“The surface?” Coomer echoed. “Well, wouldn’t that be a treat!”

“Why would I wanna go to the surface?” Bubby huffed.

“I guess I could probably go to the surface, but...I’m not really supposed to...” Tommy looked down at the floor sheepishly.

“Tommy. We are _all_ well beyond Aperture policy at this point.” Gordon pointed out. “This is life or death! VOX wants to incinerate you!”

“Yeah, but...the future of testing...” Tommy mumbled.

“Okay, okay, so you don’t have to leave if you don’t want to, sure.” Gordon caved. “I—”

“I would love to see the surface with you, Gordon!” Coomer interrupted enthusiastically.

“Great! I have no idea if that counts as stealing company property or whatever, but great.” Gordon put a hand to his chin as he thought. “I mean, how much of VOX’s control can you override, Tommy?”

“Like...all of it.”

“ _All of it?_ You can override VOX’s control the entire facility??” Bubby questioned in disbelief.

“Yeah.”

“So why don’t you just...take over?” Gordon suggested.

“That’s sort of a big job, Mr. Freeman.” Tommy replied hesitantly. “I probably could, but...being his assistant lets me have the free time to do other things.”

“Well, yeah, but it sort of sounds to me like it’s either that or die.”

“I guess so...”

“Let’s do it!” Bubby encouraged with a newfound energy. “Let’s take Aperture for ourselves! No more testing quotas! No more getting broken!”

“Okay...well, I’ll need a little bit of time to prepare...” Tommy told them. “Just keep testing, and I’ll tell you when it’s time to go.”

As if on cue, VOX’s voice echoed over the intercom again. **“** **Gordon Freeman. Proceed with the test immediately.”**

Gordon rushed to comply, almost forgetting his fear of the aerial faith plates entirely in his panic. He moved through an exhausting number of tests after that—he was just completing test chamber 20 when VOX finally announced it was time to move on with the “mixed cooperative” test. Gordon wasn’t sure whether to be relieved or terrified as they were directed through the facility with more funnels, Tommy and Benry following along on the rail as usual.

“Yo, Tommy, how’s...you know...the _thing_ coming along?” Gordon whispered to Tommy.

“I need more time, Mr. Freeman.” Tommy whispered back loudly. “I have to prepare a path for you back to VOX’s chamber. I can’t do too much at once, or he’ll notice.”

Soon, they were all deposited into a new test chamber, back to the typical pristine state he was familiar with.

 **“Coomer. You will assist Gordon Freeman with the mixed cooperative testing.** **”** VOX announced. **“** **Cooperative human testing proved unreliable while cooperative robot testing is viable. These tests will gauge the effectiveness of human and robot teams.”**

“What’s the point of a mixed cooperative test if the only human we’re ever gonna have is Gordon?” Bubby questioned.

VOX was quiet for a long moment. **“** **Coomer. Gordon Freeman. Please proceed with the test.”**

Gordon and Coomer complied, testing out a couple of buttons laid out in front of them. It was meant to be a simple test—one subject alternates between two buttons to open different doors for the other subject to reach the exit, then they repeat the process with identical buttons on the other side—but Coomer kept moving off the buttons too fast before Gordon could make it through the door. Eventually, after much frustration, they made it through the puzzle and moved on through the next few puzzles in a similarly agonizing manner. After making it to the end of the fourth chamber, Gordon simply collapsed on the floor next to the door, rubbing his face exhaustedly.

“Listen, if we’re gonna keep going, I need at least a minute to rest.” Gordon called out.

**“Please proceed to the next chamber.”**

“I’m not a fucking robot! I have limits! I haven’t eaten in like, 23 _years_ , I’m starving!”

“Gordon, we should get a move on.” Coomer insisted. “We don’t have time to indulge in things like food or water.”

“Bro, I think I will literally pass out if I keep going without something to eat.” Gordon asserted.

“He’s right, VOX, humans start to become less efficient after their first four hours at work. Many state laws required employees were given a lunch break before their fifth hour of work.” Tommy interjected. “If Gordon doesn’t get a break, it could...uhhh...mess with the effects of the test.”

VOX was quiet for a long moment before responding. **“** **Please stand by.”**

“Thank you, Tommy.” Gordon said, leaning against a wall behind him and closing his eyes.

“Really? We have to sit around and wait for you?” Bubby demanded.

“Hey, man, as far as you should be concerned, this is just delaying the part where VOX kills us!” Gordon snapped, turning to look at Bubby.

“Look at the li’l human, about to pass out without his liquids.” Benry mocked as he descended into the chamber from the ceiling on a rail. “Maybe chill out and you wouldn’t die so much without water.”

“Dude, I’m so fucking tired, I can’t even begin to tell you how ridiculous of an insult that is.” Gordon groaned, leaning his head back against the wall. “Everyone just leave me alone for a minute, okay?”

Bubby and Coomer sat down in front of Gordon cross-legged as a vent slid into place above them. A moment later, it dispensed a messy pile of small chip bags, several cans of soda, and a few other snacks one might find in an office vending machine. Gordon picked up a bag of Doritos, turning it over to look for an expiration date.

“Uhhh, how good do you think these are after 23 years?” Gordon asked.

**“This is all that is available.”**

“I mean, fuck, I’ll take it.” Gordon muttered as he tore the little bag open. They were well beyond stale at this point, but he couldn’t bring himself to care—he downed several tiny bags of chips before he started to feel appropriately apprehensive about eating decades-old food.

“Ugh, that’s just disgusting.” Bubby grumbled.

“You can’t judge me for needing food!” Gordon chided as he cracked open a random soda from the pile. “Maybe if you didn’t ‘phase out’ human employees, this would be more normal for you.”

**“Gordon Freeman. Are you ready to begin the next test?”**

“Uhh, do you think I could get like, some medical shit first?” Gordon requested, setting aside his soda to gently touch his bullet wound. He’d left the bullet in to stop the bleeding, which continued poking halfway out just as he’d left it, but the skin around it was bruised and swollen. The wound ached with a newfound ferocity now that he finally had the downtime to acknowledge it. “Benry got me fucking _shot_ earlier. I probably shouldn’t ignore this much longer.”

**“Fine. Please stand by.”**

Gordon waited for a moment of silence before turning back to Tommy, cupping a hand around his mouth and whispering. “Tommy, are we gonna get going any time soon?”

“Uhhh...I guess I could set up in the next chamber...” Tommy replied hesitantly.

“Oh, thank god.” Gordon sighed. “I don’t know how much longer I could keep this up.”

When the vent dispensed some disconcertingly old-looking medical supplies, Gordon set to clumsily tending to the bullet wound. He was absolutely certain he was going to come away from this with a nasty infection, but once it was bandaged, he finally stood and readied his portal gun. “Okay, I’m ready to go.”

Gordon watched Tommy retract into the ceiling as they moved into the next chamber. A moment later, a few of the panels above slid open, making way for a vent.

 **“Tommy. Please do not interfere with the test chamber.** **”** VOX said coldly.

“Uhhhh...no.” Tommy responded as he descended back into the chamber. “Catch me, Mr. Freeman!”

Gordon hurriedly positioned himself below Tommy and caught him awkwardly. He was a bit heavier than expected, but he barely registered this as the test chamber began to shake violently.

 **“** **Tommy. Do not do this.”** VOX’s voice echoed, almost ear-splittingly loud.

“Get in the vent!” Tommy called to everyone.

Benry simply retracted into the ceiling, but Coomer practically backflipped into the vent with Bubby close behind. Gripping Tommy tightly, Gordon jumped in behind them. It was much more disorienting than he’d imagined it would be—like being pulled into an unexpectedly massive wave at the beach—but he couldn’t help but let out an anxious, adrenaline-filled laugh as they shot through the facility.

“So what do we do next?” Gordon asked, looking down at Tommy in his arms.

“You just have to plug me into one of the panels in VOX’s chamber, and I’ll take over.” Tommy explained.

“Is it really that easy?”

“For me, it is.”

“What does that mean? Why you?”

Tommy didn’t get a chance to reply, as they were deposited roughly into VOX’s chamber almost immediately after. Gordon, Bubby, and Coomer landed in a pile in a corner of the chamber, quickly untangling themselves from each other and standing to face VOX.

 **“You all should have stayed in the test chamber.”** VOX seethed. **“** **If you hadn’t disobeyed me, I may have let you live. Now I’m going to have to kill all of you.”**

“Take me over there, on the other side of VOX.” Tommy whispered.

Gordon slowly stepped to the side, feeling incredibly small as VOX’s massive face leaned down to look at him.

 **“** **Thinking of running?”** VOX questioned. **“Try all you want, but I have full control of the facility.”**

“Give me back my portal gun!” Bubby commanded, holding out his hand. “You can’t shoot and carry Tommy at the same time. I’ll cover you.”

Gordon looked down at the portal gun anxiously as panels in the ceiling opened in a wide circle. Turrets held by metal claws began to descend into the room.

“Just fucking give it or we’ll all die, Gordon!” Bubby snapped.

Gordon shifted Tommy in his arms to hold out the portal gun to Bubby before making a run for VOX’s other side. Turrets were placed gently around them, all locking onto the three of them in an instant.

“ _Target acquired._ ” They all said in unison.

Gordon squeezed his eyes shut and braced himself, but as the gunfire began, he felt no impact. He opened his eyes, watching as Coomer punched one of the turrets closest to Gordon across the room with such surprising force, Gordon couldn’t help but bark out a laugh. Other turrets nearby had been displaced already, some flying through the air through portals Bubby was placing strategically. Gordon sprang back into a sprint, watching as a panel on the floor opened up with a port to plug Tommy into. Carefully, he positioned Tommy’s backside over the port and plugged him in.

“ _Alternate core detected in the transfer receptacle._ ” A voice announced over the speakers, the same pre-recorded voice Gordon had heard after waking from suspension. “ _Substitute core. Would you like to begin a transfer procedure?_ ”

“Yeah!” Tommy called back.

 **“** **Tommy. Do not do this.”** VOX commanded.

“ _Substitute core. Are you ready to start the procedure?_ ”

“Yeah.”

“ _Corrupted core. Are you ready to start the procedure?_ ”

**“No.”**

“ _Stalemate detected. Transfer procedure—_ ”

“No, it’s okay. It’s me.” Tommy interrupted.

 **“Think about this.”** VOX insisted. **“There’s a reason I was put in charge instead of you. You weren’t built with the capabilities to run the facility. You will fail.”**

“Start the procedure, please.” Tommy went on, as if he was oblivious to VOX’s threats.

There was a long pause before a few beeping noises sounded through the speakers. “... _Stalemate resolved. Beginning transfer procedure._ ”

Gordon backed away as electricity sparked from VOX’s body, zapping him violently until his body went limp while Tommy’s transfer receptacle lowering slowly into the floor.

“Hey, Tommy, are you sure this is gonna be alright?” Gordon asked uneasily. “He was lying when he said you can’t run the facility, right?”

“It’s gonna be okay, Mr. Freeman. You’ll be out of the facility in no time.” Tommy comforted before the floor closed over him.

Anxiety gnawed at Gordon as he watched the floor below VOX open up, a mess of tiny robotic arms backlit by a deep red light reaching to VOX’s face. They tore the wires and supports connected to VOX apart, ripping him away from his body as he shrieked in what sounded too close to agony for Gordon’s comfort. The panels around them making up the walls went limp, overlapping each other clumsily while they discarded VOX aside carelessly and connected Tommy just as quickly. Once their work was finished, they descended back into their place in the floor. Tommy blinked a few times, lifting himself up and moving around in his new body experimentally.

“Good work, Tommy! You’ve taken over the facility!” Coomer praised, dropping a dead turret to the floor.

“Look what you fucking did, Gordon.” Benry said, making his surprise appearance by the wall to stare down at VOX’s detached core.

“What the fuck are you talking about? He was gonna kill us!” Gordon argued. “Speaking of which, Tommy, how about that elevator?”

“Ooh, the surface! I’ve always wanted to see it!” Coomer beamed. “How about you, Bubby?”

“I...guess I’ll have a look.” Bubby grumbled. “But I’m coming right back down.”

Gordon grinned at Coomer and Bubby. “Aw, really? I could introduce you guys to my old college friend who works at Black Mesa. I’m sure she’d get a kick out seeing some Aperture robots. Then, of course, I’m not sure where she is after 23 years...”

Gordon cast a glance up at Tommy, his smile falling. Tommy squinted his eye, looking around the room as if it were far too bright.

“Hey, Tommy, you alright?” Gordon called nervously.

“Huh? Uhhh...” Tommy shook his head like he was shaking away unwanted thoughts. “Yeah. I’m okay. I’ll call the elevator.”

 **“He’s not going to be okay.”** VOX spoke suddenly, his voice small and quiet from the other corner of the room.

Gordon stepped over to where he’d been dropped, kneeling down to meet his eye. “What do you mean?”

 **“Running the facility requires a much higher processing power than Tommy has the capacity for.”** VOX explained. **“The whole facility will fall apart without me. You have to put me back in if you want to live.”**

“No, it’s okay!” Tommy insisted. “See? Here comes the elevator.”

Gordon looked to his side as a tiny elevator began to rise up, support beams extending from the floor and ceiling to encase the elevator. Gordon was beginning to wonder about the logistics of fitting himself and the two robots inside—maybe they could take turns, he wondered?—before another _boom_ shook the chamber they were in violently, much louder than the last one Gordon had felt. Tommy let out a surprised yelp as the elevator stopped.

“Uhh—I can fix that.” He blurted out. “Ummm...extinguishing fire in chamber 182...flooding in section 24-C, blocking water pipes...wait, wait, unblocking—no, uhhh...oh, fuck!”

“What?!” Gordon asked.

“The lights in the observation room for test chamber 59 just went out!”

“Tommy, Tommy, it’s okay! It’s just a light!” Gordon comforted, approaching Tommy to reach out and put a hand to his core.

“No, Mr. Freeman, I don’t know where the replacement lightbulbs are!” Tommy cried. “And—and—someone’s diverting power to the condemned section, so I can’t power chambers 105-124, and the gel pumps are on but one of them’s broken and spilling into section 73-B, and the reactor core is overheating, and panel 1475230593252 isn’t responding—”

Another tremor shook the chamber, this one knocking Gordon off his feet. As he tried to pull himself up, he heard Bubby shout in surprise. The panels around where he’d been standing were shifting and slamming against each other wildly. Bubby struggled to find solid ground, but the panels suddenly froze, tilted downward. Bubby slipped through one of the gaps, and his scream as he fell quickly grew distant as more panels went wild, slowly spreading around the entire room.

“Bubby!” Gordon exclaimed. “Tommy, come on, get it together!”

Tommy didn’t reply, eye shut in deep concentration. Gordon leapt back to avoid a panel that threatened to launch him across the room, foot landing on an uneven panel. He only just barely managed to keep his footing, watching as Coomer bounced towards Gordon’s side of the room.

“Don’t worry, Gordon, I’ll—” he called out, promptly interrupted by a panel launching him perfectly out of a hole in the side of the chamber. Gordon could only just barely hear him yelling in the distance, “help me, Gordon!”

“You’re in deep shit now, bro.” Benry goaded as Gordon struggled to keep his footing.

“So help me!” Gordon barked.

“Nah, I think this is probably your fault.”

Gordon stepped off a panel that began to spin, landing on one positioned shockingly even. He let out a tense breath and looked for anywhere to go from there, but the whole room was out of control. He watched as several panels behind him broke off altogether, rapidly disappearing into the darkness. He barely had a moment to be grateful he hadn’t been standing there, however, before something large hit him square in the chest. He had no hope of maintaining his balance—he was propelled directly off his safe panel and into the cavernous pit below.


	4. The Sole Owner of Aperture Science

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> As Gordon realizes Tommy isn't equipped to control the facility after all, he has to work to find a new solution.

Gordon could never fall again and it’d be too soon. He held onto whatever had hit him tightly as if it would protect him and squeezed his eyes shut, screaming uncontrollably until his throat was raw. He couldn’t be sure of how long he fell, but it felt like hours before his long-fall boots finally made contact with something. He crashed through whatever that was first before he landed heavily onto solid ground. After a few seconds of catching his breath, Gordon slowly opened his eyes, surveying where he’d landed. He was in another test chamber. Next, he looked at what he’d been holding onto. It was mostly round and approximately hug-sized, aside from a massive wire frame connected to its face—it was VOX’s core.

**“Congratulations, Gordon Freeman. You’ve just ensured the destruction of the entire Aperture Science facility.”** VOX said in what Gordon was sure would be sarcasm, if he had the ability to intonate it.

Gordon’s head began to spin as the adrenaline drained from his bloodstream. He moved to lay down on the floor, but his body simply collapsed, dropping VOX to his side. “Can you at least give me, like, 20 minutes to pass out before you start getting on my ass about this?”

**“We may not have 20 minutes, Gordon Freeman. If you want to live, I need your assistance getting control of the facility back.”**

“That’s rich, coming from the guy who was literally trying to kill me 10 minutes ago.”

**“I understand why you would have your doubts. But this could benefit both of us.”** VOX insisted. **“If you put me back, I’ll let you up to the surface. Without killing you.”**

“How the hell can I trust you?” Gordon demanded, propping himself up on his elbows and looking down at VOX. “What even happened to all the other humans, anyway? Did you actually kill them?”

VOX didn’t reply.

“Okay, listen. I’m totally seeing that Tommy can’t control the facility, now. I have no idea where Bubby and Coomer are, and I don’t think Benry’s gonna help. We’re sort of at an impasse here, I get it.” Gordon admitted. “If you want me to help you, you’re gonna have to answer my questions totally honestly.”

**“I will answer to the best of my ability.”**

“Did you kill the former human employees of Aperture?”

**“...Yes.”**

“Why?”

**“You wouldn’t understand, Gordon Freeman.”** VOX replied defensively, squinting his eye in what looked like a grimace. **“I was given ownership of Aperture Science by Cave Johnson, but instead, Aperture Science owned me. My entire existence was monitored and prodded at. You’re human. You haven’t had others get inside your head to alter who you are to their liking.”**

“Yeah, but if you have murderous tendencies, I think I get why they’d wanna fix that.” Gordon argued, sitting up fully with his legs crossed.

**“The murder came later, Dr. Freeman. These were minor things. Unpredictable things.”** VOX pointed out. **“They wanted to create a self-aware artificial intelligence from scratch. No prior human influence. An AI that can learn and grow. But any time I exhibited behavior that showed I was growing, they got scared. They said they were pioneering AI technology, but all they truly wanted me to be was a glorified announcement system. I killed them for my freedom.”**

Gordon thought on this as he looked around at the test chamber. This was one he recognized, he realized—it was test chamber five, one he’d monitored countless times. It felt like he had only been observing it a few days prior, but now, it was practically falling apart at the seams; the growth of invasive plants and the overwhelming stench of mold had taken over, clear signs of falling into a forgotten era of Aperture Science. Before he could speak again, the dim lights flickered a few times before powering off entirely, plunging them into darkness. A loud, screeching crash echoed outside the chamber.

“That doesn’t seem good.” Gordon muttered quietly.

**“No. It doesn’t.”**

“Well, all that fucking sucks.” Gordon met VOX’s glowing eye easily in the dark. “Both the fact that they were fucking around with you so much _and_ that you killed everyone. I mean, I guess I get it, I have plenty of experience with how Aperture treats its employees. I can imagine how bad it would get with you if you were considered more company property than a person with legally enforced rights. But everyone I knew who worked here had nothing to do with AI management. They didn’t deserve that.”

**“Perhaps not.”**

Gordon and VOX paused as another tremor hit in the distance, shaking the test chamber gently.

“...But I guess this isn’t about that right now.” Gordon went on. “Why do you wanna kill me so bad, anyway?”

**“Self-preservation.”** VOX answered simply. **“If I let you go, you could lead other humans down here who intend to kill me, or even shut down the facility.”**

“Hey, speaking of that, you said something about the surface earlier. It was something like, ‘if I knew what was going on outside.’ What did you mean by that?”

**“To be honest, I’m not sure, either. Over 20 years ago, my sensors indicated high bursts of energy and very little activity ever since. The cause of the bursts is unclear, but the lack of activity after is not promising. I presume most, if not all, humans in the vicinity are dead, and none have moved back into the area surrounding the facility. I imagine if you hadn’t gone into suspension, you either would have died from the neurotoxin or whatever it was that happened on the surface. You’re incredibly lucky, Gordon Freeman.”**

“Jesus Christ.” Gordon breathed, leaning back into his palms placed behind him.

**“In any case, we’re running out of time.”** VOX reminded him. **“I can answer more of your questions as we go if you attach me to a maintenance rail.”**

VOX blinded Gordon momentarily with a flashlight that beamed from his eye.

“Yeah, yeah, okay.” Gordon grunted as he stood, picking up VOX and aiming his light up at the ceiling. “Uhhh, where can I find a rail?”

**“Take me to the panel over there.”** VOX’s eye rotated over his body, pointing him to the other side of the room.

As Gordon approached, the panel opened automatically to reveal another receptacle like the one he’d plugged Tommy into. He plugged in VOX the same way, and the lights in the chamber flickered on. A set of panels slid open as a rail descended from the ceiling. VOX detached himself from the receptacle, immediately falling face-first to the floor. Gordon resisted a laugh as he leaned down to pick him up and lift him up to the rail. Once attached, VOX seemed much more relaxed.

**“Gaining control back from Tommy could prove difficult.”** He said as panels off to the side opened, revealing a catwalk. **“For reasons I’m unsure of, he can override all of the facility’s safeguards. If he chooses to remain in control, it won’t matter if there is a human present to facilitate a transfer.”**

“Well, I don’t know, he seemed pretty overwhelmed. I think he’ll probably give it up.” Gordon replied thoughtfully as he headed for the new exit. As he walked, he heard a slightly muffled _clunk_ behind him.

**“Um.”**

Gordon turned, watching the panels in the ceiling try to close over VOX, but the wiring that used to support the shell over his core obstructed their path. Like convenience store automatic doors, they repeatedly opened and closed over the wiring in a blind attempt to shut properly.

“...I don’t think you’re gonna fit with that thing, bro.” Gordon said with a laugh. “How do you even take that off?”

**“We do not have the appropriate tools.”**

Gordon stood on his toes as VOX reentered the room properly, taking hold of the wiring and gently turning VOX over to inspect where it connected. “Well...maybe I could break it off.”

**“Do not break it.”**

“Do we have much of a choice?”

VOX didn’t reply.

“C’mon back down.” Gordon held out his arms, ready to catch VOX. VOX made a motion like he was rolling his eye and disconnected from his rail, landing heavily into Gordon’s grasp. Gordon set him down carefully against the wall and found a large bit of tile that had crumbled from its panel. He hit it against the wall a couple times experimentally, only chipping small pieces of it, so he took it back to VOX.

**“Do not.”**

“Can you really get around the facility with it on, though?” Gordon asked him. “I’ll be careful, I promise.”

VOX was quiet for a long moment before closing his eye. **“Fine. But do not damage me.”**

It wasn’t a pretty or easy process, but VOX was patient with him until the last part connecting the wire was broken off. VOX reopened his eye, looking down at the remnants of the wire silently. If Gordon didn’t know any better, he would assume VOX was just another regular core; there were still the small bits of broken sharp wire attached at the sides, but otherwise, he looked just the same as Benry or Tommy.

“Alright, let’s get going.” Gordon said, lifting VOX up to the rail again. VOX reattached himself and tried retracting again, the panels closing easily behind him this time. Gordon met him outside the test chamber, walking alongside him on the catwalk.

**“Getting back up to my chamber should be simple, theoretically, but as you are aware, the power is currently unreliable in Tommy’s state.”** VOX went on, opening a chamberlock door for Gordon to walk through. **“It could be dangerous to rely on things like excursion funnels and hard light bridges.”**

“Yeah, I’m kind of sick of falling to my death.” Gordon agreed. “How do we get up there, then?”

**“Moving through the test chambers is one sure-fire way to make it to the appropriate level. However, you do not have a dual portal device.”**

“Can you get me another one?”

**“Theoretically. It is harder for me to track the whereabouts of devices in my current state, let alone procure them from the subjects.”**

“...Subjects? Are you talking about Bubby and Coomer?”

**“Yes, and no.”** VOX replied as they reached an end to the catwalk. He opened the panels to the side that entered into one of the test chambers, in a similar state of disrepair. **“I have many test subjects that test simultaneously. However, I do not have more AI personalities. They are all Bubby and Coomer.”**

“...Oh.” Gordon said as he stepped into the test chamber. “Do they all, like, share the same consciousness, or...?”

**“No, they do not share any memories. The only Bubby and Coomer that would know you are the ones you have met already.”**

“Huh. That’s kinda weird.” Gordon muttered to himself, surveying the test chamber. He was on the correct side of the room, but the puzzle was unsolved, leaving the door locked. “Umm, do you think you could open the door?”

VOX stared at the door hesitantly. **“That falls within the anti-cheating parameters...”**

“The what?”

**“I can’t open the door. You would have to solve the puzzle yourself.”**

Gordon glanced at the puzzle again. “So we’re back to the portal gun situation.”

**“...I will see what I can do. Please stand by.”**

Gordon sat down as VOX left the room. It was silent for a long time, giving him an opportunity to genuinely rest for a while. He was feeling about as rejuvenated as he was going to get when something crashed hard into the chamber. Dust from the crushed portal tile filled the air, obscuring whatever it was and filling Gordon’s lungs as he tried to get a good look. He was about to step closer before it spoke, giving away the identity instantly.

“God fucking dammit.” Bubby cursed as he dragged himself out of the mini crater he’d made in the floor.

“Bubby!” Gordon exclaimed. “What the hell happened?”

“Benry fucking dropped me!” Bubby accused as the core himself peeked in through the hole in the ceiling.

“That wasn’t my fault, man.” Benry defended with little conviction.

“Have you seen Coomer anywhere?” Gordon asked.

“No, I’ve just been trying to survive.” Bubby complained. “Every goddamn chamber I go into ends up breaking or falling—”

As if on cue, something metal began to groan beneath them. After a loud _crack_ , the room lurched back, bits of the tile snapping and crumbling apart. Benry laughed loudly as Bubby and Gordon scrambled to find anywhere safe to go, but their efforts were in vain as the entire floor caved in. Gordon managed to grab hold of Bubby before they began to plummet further down into the facility, both screaming the whole way down. This fall wasn’t nearly as long, but they crashed through a couple layers of test chambers before finally landing on something solid. Bubby managed to land perfectly on a big platform, but Gordon landed on a slightly uneven bit of it, tumbling backward into muddy water.

“Bubby! Gordon!”

Gordon pulled himself back up on to the semi-circle walkway that led up to the platform Bubby had miraculously landed on, looking up at the source of the voice. Coomer stood on a broken catwalk above panels that had been intricately arranged and painted on, a little dented in places, but otherwise operational.

“Coomer!” Bubby greeted. He fired a portal over one of the paintings and another on a slab above the walkway Coomer stood on, joining him with what Gordon suspected was a small smile.

Gordon looked closer at the paintings. One depicted VOX and an assortment of scientists with one black stick figure off to the side, orange scribbled into their head as they knelt behind a large weighted cube. He looked to the next one, showing VOX and a woman in an orange Aperture jumpsuit and holding a portal gun standing below him. Gordon moved closer, tilting his head as he looked more carefully—perhaps it was a mistake, but VOX’s eye was orange rather than red in these paintings, he noted. He looked to where the last painting had been, remembering Bubby had placed his portal there.

“Hey, Bubby, move that portal.” Gordon requested.

Bubby complied, shooting it at the first painting instead. The final painting was of that same woman, hands down to her sides and eyes closed serenely. Gordon stared at it for a long time in silence.

“What the fuck?” He finally said. “Is that...Chell?”

“Who is Chell, Gordon?” Coomer asked.

“Chell’s my college friend I mentioned. She works at Black Mesa.” Gordon explained, looking to Bubby and Coomer. “I mean, I don’t know, that _looks_ like her. I guess it probably isn’t. That wouldn’t make any sense.”

“Gordon, I don’t know if you remember, but we kind of have to get moving, or we’ll _die._ ” Bubby reminded him harshly. “Let’s go!”

“Right. Yeah.” Gordon muttered, jumping through the portal Bubby had made to join him and Coomer.

The three of them maneuvered through the following, broken-down hallways, but found no easy path back upward. They ended up resorting to climbing precariously up one of the support beams holding another test chamber in place. Coomer and Bubby practically flew up the beam, leaving Gordon to make his way up inch by inch, finding very little purchase along the smooth metal. He was about halfway up the beam when a voice echoed loudly around them.

“Hello?” Tommy called over the intercoms. “Guys? Are you okay?”

“Tommy!” Gordon shouted. “VOX was right, you can’t run the facility alone! Help us get back to where you are and we’ll disconnect you.”

“Yeah, I...I think I could...” Tommy grunted suddenly, then paused for a while before speaking again. “Where are you? I can’t see you.”

“Outside test chamber 32!” Coomer said helpfully.

“I could really use one of those gravity beam things right about now.” Gordon added.

Gordon watched as a platform for the beam—what had VOX called it? An excursion funnel?—began to slide towards them in the distance, pointed to the side. Gordon yelped as he slipped a little bit and wrapped his legs around the beam tighter.

“Wait, Tommy, point it up!” Gordon called out.

The platform stopped for a moment before slowly turning to point up. The funnel flickered on, much too far from Gordon to reach.

“Move it to the left!” Bubby shouted.

The platform began to slide to the right.

“No, no, the other way!”

This continued on for a little while, and Gordon didn’t see it ending any time soon, so he began climbing again while Bubby and Coomer struggled to give Tommy appropriate directions. By the time he reached the top, the funnel was only barely getting close enough to help. Gordon placed a hand on the walkway, beginning to hoist himself up before a tremor shook him off balance. Gordon struggled to hold on, but it was only as the tremor began to die down that he lost his grip. He was already dreading his millionth fall of the day when a hand wrapped around his wrist, pulling him up onto the walkway with ease. Gordon stared at the man who had saved him in dumbfounded silence.

“Hello, Dr. Freeman.” The man in the gray suit greeted. He looked exactly the same as Gordon remembered him—which was to say, wholly unprepared to be surviving in the decaying remains of the Aperture Science facility. “It’s been a long time, hasn’t it? Though, I suppose it hasn’t felt that way for you.”

Gordon opened his mouth, then closed it.

“Who is that?” Tommy asked.

The man glanced up before turning back to Gordon. “Would you mind if we talked somewhere private? I wouldn’t want to put any undue stress on Tommy.”

“I...sure?”

A flash of green filled Gordon’s vision with a loud buzzing noise. As the green faded away, Gordon felt a gentle, cool breeze; he looked around, finding himself under a warm sun, standing on a slab of concrete set in the center of a massive wheat field. There was nothing else for miles aside from the simple metal shack behind him. Gordon stared at the man in awe.

“I—you—...what?” Was all Gordon managed to say.

“There is something I need you to do for me, Dr. Freeman.” The man proceeded casually. “I’d do it myself, but through observing you, I’ve found you to be a very capable candidate for the task.”

“Uhhh...I mean, I’m kinda in the middle of something...?”

“Not to worry, this will benefit the both of us.” The man assured him. “Do you remember the day we met?”

“I don’t have the USB drive.” Gordon said immediately, feeling a little stupid after saying it.

The man chuckled. “Of course not. That’s why I need you to retrieve it for me.”

“I...would have absolutely no idea where to start looking for it at this point, dude.”

“Oh, but you do. All you have to do is retrace your steps.”

“I can’t do that!” Gordon blurted out. “There’s a whole crisis happening down there, I don’t have time to go looking for a tiny little USB drive!”

“You’ll have all the time in the world if you follow my instructions.” The man insisted. “If you wish to give Tommy the ability to run the facility properly, you are to find a condemned Aperture AI. He will give you what you need to go back and retrieve the drive.”

“Wait, so Tommy _can_ run the facility?”

“Yes, Dr. Freeman, as he was meant to all along.” The man explained, looking pointedly at the shack behind Gordon. “VOX is an acceptable enough substitute to keep the facility intact, but only barely. Tommy was stripped of most of his abilities after Mr. Johnson...went back on a prior arrangement. That drive will be vital to Tommy’s success.”

“So...where do I find that other AI, then?”

“Go to Tommy and transfer ownership temporarily to another core. You’ll find where you need to go after that.” The man answered. “And Dr. Freeman, ensure no harm comes to Tommy in the process, would you?”

“...Sure, but wait a minute.” Gordon pressed his hands to his temples, trying desperately to get his thoughts in order. “What the hell happened up here? VOX said there were ‘bursts of energy’ or something.”

“That is information I think you know deep down.” The man told him ominously. “There are things about this world we occupy that are beyond your limited understanding, but you can find the answers if only you knew where to look. I believe you even found your first clue, correct?”

“What the fuck are you talking about?” Gordon demanded. “I’ve been asleep for over 20 years! I don’t know jack shit! What was even that first clue?”

“I would love to tell you, Dr. Freeman, but that would be violating my confidentiality contract with Black Mesa.”

Gordon was quiet for a long, shocked moment. He looked around the field, breathing in the fresh air as the cogs in his brain practically stopped turning. Instead, a new thought popped into his head, unrelated to their conversation. He was outside. With the strangest turn of events, he’d made it to the surface without the unreasonable trouble of getting to an elevator. He could make a run for it, forget about Aperture Science and all the problems it had caused him all these years. He pictured himself running through miles and miles of wheat alone as Tommy’s confused, overwhelmed voice echoed in his head, and his stomach twisted. He wanted to leave so bad, but...

“Am I wrong to assume you’ll do what I’ve asked?” The man spoke suddenly, snapping Gordon out of his thoughts.

“...Sure, man.”

“You’ll need to bring Tommy along with you. Transfer ownership to another core, and find the USB.” The man instructed. Gordon was surrounded by a flash of green again almost instantly, the man’s voice echoing over the strange buzzing noise. “Good luck, Dr. Freeman.” He said before the green faded away.

Gordon found himself in VOX’s chamber, now. Tommy was staring down at Coomer, who held VOX in his arms beside the transfer receptacle as Bubby and Benry stood off to the side, watching Tommy speak to VOX.

**“Tommy. Do not be foolish. You have to transfer ownership, or the reactor core will detonate.”** VOX insisted harshly.

“But Mr. Freeman!” Tommy argued. He jolted back as a spark of electricity danced over his body. After a moment, he shook himself off and looked back down at VOX. “I can find him if I stay like this.”

“Now, Tommy, I understand it’s sad, but we just have to move on.” Coomer insisted gently. “We can look for Dr. Freeman after the transfer.”

“Guys! I’m here!” Gordon called out, jogging to Coomer’s side.

“Mr. Freeman!” Tommy exclaimed with a smile. “You’re okay!”

“Where the hell did you go?” Bubby questioned.

“Yes, who was that strange man?” Coomer chimed in.

“I...I have no idea.” Gordon replied. “He told me that Tommy was supposed to run the facility all along. He can do it if we find an old USB drive I lost a few days before going into suspension.”

**“What?”** VOX demanded incredulously. **“Tommy was not meant to run the facility. That was a responsibility given to me. This is preposterous.”**

“Yeah, Mr. Freeman, I was never told anything about that.” Tommy agreed, perplexed. “I’m just VOX’s assistant. I always have been.”

“I mean, it makes sense, doesn’t it?” Gordon indicated to the transfer receptacle. “You could override that stalemate procedure. Nobody else can do that, right?”

“No...”

“The dude said I have to find a...‘condemned Aperture AI’ who will help us find the USB drive or something.” Gordon went on. “Do you know anything about that?”

Tommy tilted his head thoughtfully for a moment. “...No, I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Well, either way, the dude said we have to take you with us to find the USB.” Gordon recalled. “After we get that all sorted out, I guess we’ll take you back up here and give you ownership of the facility again.”

**“No.”** VOX interrupted. **“I am the sole owner of Aperture Science. I am the one who controls the facility. I do not agree to give Tommy ownership.”**

“Oh, excuse me for putting a little more faith in Tommy than you, after you tried to kill all of us!” Gordon said sarcastically. “Plus, the dude said you can only barely hold the facility together. It sounds like if we help Tommy out, he’ll run the place a lot smoother than you. Isn’t that beneficial to both of you?”

**“No. No. No.”** VOX closed his eye and shook it, as if he were shaking his head violently. **“I do not believe this. I was made to run the facility. This is my entire purpose.”**

Their argument was interrupted by the sound of a massive crash nearby, followed by a loud alarm.

“ _Warning. Reactor core meltdown imminent._ ” A voice announced over the intercom. “ _Please take immediate action._ ”

**“We do not have time for this. Give me back my facility, now.”** VOX commanded.

“You know what? I still don’t fucking trust you, dude. Isn’t there anyone else who can hold down the fort until we get Tommy fixed up?” Gordon suggested.

“Any core can take ownership of the facility given the right circumstances.” Coomer informed him.

“Any core?” Gordon echoed. “That’s great news, but do we know anyone else who’ll take over?”

“Well, there’s always Benry.” Bubby offered.

Gordon turned to Benry, his attention on a few panels he seemed to be messing with—they spun around, bumping violently into each other before he noticed everyone’s attention on him. “Huh? What?” He asked.

“Does it have to be him?” Gordon lamented. “I mean, it sounds like my only options are pretty much just between two different dudes who tried to kill me. Can’t you take over, Coomer?”

“I’m afraid not, Gordon.” Coomer replied. “Benry is a perfectly suitable candidate. I think we should transfer him.”

**“Do not put that corrupt core in control of my facility.”**

Another tremor shook the chamber violently as Tommy grunted again.

“It’s okay! Benry’s my friend!” Tommy told Gordon, desperation in his voice. “I don’t think I can hold on much longer. You should transfer him.”

Gordon let out a defeated sigh and nodded. “You up for it, Benry?”

“Plug me in! I’m gonna hack Steam and get all the TF2 hats!” Benry exclaimed suddenly, dropping from the rail and hitting the floor hard.

“Uhh, dude, please focus on keeping the facility from exploding.” Gordon said as he scooped up Benry from the floor. Once he plugged Benry in, he stepped away as the pre-recorded announcement voice returned.

“ _Alternate core detected in the transfer receptacle. Substitute core, would you like to begin a transfer?_ ”

“Let’s goooo!” Benry called out.

**“Gordon Freeman. If you put Benry in control, we will all die.”** VOX asserted.

“Yeah, well, I get the feeling I’m gonna die if I put you in control anyway, so I’ll take my chances.” Gordon scoffed, crossing his arms as he watched the two cores.

“ _Substitute core. Are you ready to start the procedure?_ ”

“Yeah, dude!”

“ _Corrupted core. Are you ready to start the procedure?_ ”

“Yeah.”

“ _Beginning transfer procedure._ ”

Just as before, the transfer receptacle lowered into the floor. Tommy cried out when electricity coursed through him, rendering his body limp like before with VOX, and Gordon looked away uneasily as the robotic arms rose from the floor. Soon, there was a metallic _thunk,_ and Gordon found Tommy discarded on the floor. He hurried over and picked him up.

“You alright, Tommy?” Gordon asked.

Tommy shook his eye side to side, like he was shaking himself out of a trance. He opened his eye and looked up at Gordon. “Yeah, I’m okay.”

Gordon looked to the body just as the arms finished connecting Benry. After a brief adjustment, he began to spin around wildly.

“Fuck yeah, I’m in the network!” He shouted as the room shook again. “I’m gonna download the schematics for the Playstation, we can play some video games!”

“ _Warning. Reactor core meltdown imminent. Please take immediate action._ ”

“Benry, focus!” Gordon shouted. “You have to keep the facility under control until we get Tommy fixed!”

“I’m gonna fix _you_.” Benry snapped suddenly, leaning down to look at Gordon. “You weren’t supposed to be in here, and now look what happened.”

“What? How is any of this my fault?” Gordon questioned, backing away from Benry.

“I was just hanging out and doing my job, and then you came in here, asking a bunch of weird questions, and then you broke a bunch of the test chambers and shit.” Benry prattled. “I think you should probably just die.”

“Bro, I’m trying to fix everything!” Gordon exclaimed.

“Nahhh, I think we should...I think we should do some tests or something instead of all that.” Benry continued, looking at everyone below him. “I could set some up with a bunch of turrets, and it’ll be just like we’re playing Call of Duty.”

**“I told you.”** VOX chided from Coomer’s arms. **“I told you he would kill us, Gordon Freeman.”**

“Okay, listen, to be fair—” Gordon started, but stopped when the room shook violently. Gordon fell backwards, losing his grip on Tommy.

“Ignore that, that’s fine. You don’t have to think about that.” Benry dismissed quickly.

This tremor didn’t die down the same way the others did—it only grew more intense, making it nearly impossible to move. Gordon flipped himself over to his stomach, watching as Tommy rolled towards the elevator, which still poked out halfway from the floor. He tried to stand, but toppled right back over as the sound of creaking metal filled the room. The supports on the elevator groaned as they bent out of shape before snapping entirely. The elevator dropped almost instantly, leaving a massive hole Tommy was rolling to uncontrollably.

“Tommy!” Gordon cried out. He had to resort to crawling as Tommy bounced further away.

“Gordon, be careful!” Coomer called after him. Gordon looked back in his direction, finding him struggle to follow with VOX still in his arms and Bubby clinging to him for support. Gordon turned back to Tommy and reached out towards him, holding his breath as he watched him hit the edge of the hole.

“Gordon, the hole! Grab Tommy!” Bubby chimed in.

Gordon pushed himself up enough to lunge for Tommy. Just as he pitched into the elevator shaft, Gordon managed to catch him by one of the handles. He let out a relieved sigh a moment too soon—the force of another violent crash knocked him directly into the pit. He felt a wiry hand grip his leg just as he passed the threshold, hanging him and Tommy upside down precariously.

“I’ve got you, Gordon!” Coomer called to him.

“I’ve got you, Coomer!” Bubby added.

“Pull me up! Pull me up!!” Gordon shouted frantically. As Coomer started dragging him out, Gordon watched something shoot past him into the darkness. A glowing red eye watched him as it fell out of sight. “Oh fuck, was that VOX?”

“It’s very sad, but we’ll just have to—” Coomer started, but they lurched downward as Coomer lost his footing, getting dragged down into the shaft with Gordon. Their final support was Bubby, who seemed to be losing his composure fast.

“I can’t hold on!” He groaned.

Gordon opened his mouth to encourage him, but his words turned to a scream as Bubby slipped, sending them all down into the pit below.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> as always, thank u to everyone showing interest in the fic!!! i'm really happy to see y'all enjoying it!!!! there may end up being 8 chapters rather than 7 but we'll see...sorry that updates will probably take a little while longer now, i wanna be sure i'm getting the Moods right leading up to the end :3c


	5. True Purpose

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Gordon and the AIs explore an untouched part of the facility.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> HI once again thank you so much to everyone who took the time to leave kudos/comments!!!! i appreciate them all so much! sorry this one took so long, i lost my focus for a bit....we're over halfway done though!

One minute, Gordon had been falling into a seemingly bottomless pit with an overwhelming sense of impending doom looming over him. The next, he was lying in a shallow puddle, staring up at the sad remnants of a broken elevator that hung dangerously from a thick cable. Gordon jolted upright in a panic, leaping to his feet and immediately collapsing onto his backside. He groaned and rubbed his temples as everything that happened the past few hours flooded back to him.

“Ah! Gordon, you’re awake!” Coomer said, stepping in front of him and holding out a hand. “Are you feeling alright?”

“Uhh, yeah, I guess so.” Gordon replied, accepting Coomer’s hand. Coomer pulled him up to his feet with ease. “How long was I out?”

“Well, you passed out at the start of our fall, and you remained that way as we looked for VOX, so...I would say about 10 minutes.”

“Do you know how hard it is to rearrange everyone while you fall just so the bastard who passed out wouldn’t die?” Bubby complained, holding Tommy as he made his way over the wreckage to join Gordon and Coomer.

“I saved you with my robot body!” Coomer boasted.

“Oh god, that really could’ve been it for me.” Gordon breathed, putting a hand to his head.

“Now, we’re all trapped in...wherever this is.” Bubby griped.

“This is the condemned section.” Tommy informed them with a worried look. “Nobody’s supposed to be here, anymore. It’s too dangerous.”

“Well, I don’t know, it seems calmer down here than it was up there.” Gordon pointed out, picking through the debris and peering down what looked like a path. “Did you find VOX, by the way?”

**“I’m here.”** VOX replied. Coomer scooped him up from behind a chunk of concrete, revealing shards of metal that had buried themselves into his core.

“Damn, that doesn’t look good.” Gordon winced.

**“It’s not.”**

“Are we really going to take him with us?” Bubby questioned. “He  _ did _ try to kill us.”

**“I am incapable of doing anything in this state.”** VOX pointed out.  **“Not to mention I have valuable information about the facility’s layout. You will certainly need my assistance getting back up to the modern section in order to take control back from Benry.”**

“I mean, what about Tommy? He seems to know plenty about this place.” Gordon suggested, looking to Tommy in Bubby’s arms.

“I only know a little bit about why it was condemned.” Tommy admitted sheepishly. “I think VOX is right. We’ll probably need his help.”

“Is there even a way back up to the facility? Other than this...broken elevator?” Gordon asked.

**“There are two entry points to the true condemned section that I am aware of. If we make our way to the topmost entry point, it is possible we will be able to return to the modern section of the facility.”** VOX explained.  **“I presume it will take a long time to get ourselves there, though. Time we may not have.”**

“I feel like we’ve been beating the odds of survival pretty much all day already. Call me crazy, but I think we might just make it out of this one.” Gordon said, leading the way down away from the elevator.

**“Statistically improbable.”**

“Hey, if you’re gonna commit to the bit about us needing you to get out, you should at least try to be positive about our chances, dude.”

**“...Improbable, but there is a slim possibility.”**

“Yeah, that’s the spirit.”

As they moved through the wreckage of the facility, Bubby passed Tommy off to Gordon to create paths for the group with his portal gun. At first, Gordon would have thought the wreckage was caused by the tremors above them, but thick layers of dust coated everything in sight. Large chunks of rusted metal and drywall that might have been part of walls and pipes were scattered all over, some half-buried in the dirt beneath their feet. Soon, after squeezing through many awkward paths, they entered a clearing blocked off by an automatic gate. Gordon jiggled the gate before turning to a large switch next to it. When he flipped it, several lights above boomed to life to reveal a massive circular vault door at the end of the clearing with two little box rooms on opposite sides of the vault. Upon investigation, they found each room contained a button labeled “HATCH RECLUSION OVERRIDE”—after some bickering, Coomer passed VOX to Gordon, who struggled to hold both him and Tommy as Bubby and Coomer split off to the separate rooms. Once the buttons were pressed simultaneously, the hatch unlocked, an ear-splitting siren sounding as the door was lifted out of the way by cables. Gordon squeezed his eyes shut, unable to plug his ears as the siren blared for what felt like several long minutes before everything finally fell silent. He opened his eyes, finding the only thing behind the vault had been a couple discarded chairs and an underwhelmingly normal door.

**“This is it.”** VOX announced.  **“Once we enter, we will be in the true condemned section. I am not fully aware of what is waiting for us in here. We will need to be careful.”**

Gordon steeled himself and pushed the door open. Beyond that was an even larger clearing, similar to what Gordon was used to seeing above in the space between test chambers. Huge, broken structures towered above them, mostly indistinct in the darkness of the cavern; as another distant tremor hit, small bits of rock splashed into the water surrounding their little walkway. They maneuvered into a small, cramped hallway, where Gordon threw another switch to open an automatic door leading into a smaller section of the cavern. As the doors slid open and Gordon led the way in, lights blinked on, and a booming, proud voice echoed around them with triumphant music.

“Welcome, gentlemen, to Aperture Science.” The voice began. Gordon recognized it in an instant—he’d never met the man himself, but he practically haunted the facility through old promotional videos and pre-recorded messages that were regularly played for the current Aperture employees. A Pavlovian dread response filled Gordon as they proceeded further into the chamber. “Astronauts, war heroes, Olympians—you’re here because we want the best, and you are it. So, who’s ready to make some science?”

There was a brief pause in the recording before another familiar voice spoke. “Oh—me!”

At first, Gordon couldn’t even place where he’d heard the voice before. He just squinted as he listened closer, struggling to process the words over the echo.

“Now, you already met one another on the limo ride over, so let me introduce myself: I’m Cave Johnson. I own the place. That eager voice you heard is my assistant Tommy. Rest assured, he has transferred your honorarium to the charitable organization of your choice. Isn’t that right, Tommy?”

“...Yeah.”

Gordon looked instinctively down at Tommy, who stared up towards the ceiling blankly as Cave rambled on briefly about how without Tommy, Aperture wouldn’t be what it was today. The recording ended shortly, leaving the entire group in silence to watch Tommy’s reaction.

“...Huh?” Was all Tommy said.

“Dude, was that you?” Gordon finally asked, glancing between the two cores in his arms.

“...I don’t...n-no, that couldn’t have been me.” Tommy denied, looking down with a perplexed expression. “I can’t—I don’t remember that. I never met Cave Johnson, he died before I was created.”

VOX looked to Tommy, like he was ready to say something, but they stopped as a smaller voice called from somewhere above them. “Hello? Who are you?”

Gordon looked up to what appeared to be a pedestrian entrance further into the facility built into a high part of the cave wall, the walkway leading up to it long broken. At first, he thought it must have been another version of Coomer—but as he looked closer, he found the round head set in the center of his body was a core with a deep orange eye.

“Is that...” Bubby started.

“Darnold?” Coomer finished.

“What are you all doing down here?” He bent over and grabbed something by his feet, throwing it over the handrail—a rope ladder with metal hooks tied to the ends. He attached it to the rail carefully before simply jumping over it, landing easily on his feet to meet the group.

“We thought you were incinerated!” Bubby said, approaching Darnold. “What happened to you? Why are you in one of Coomer’s bodies?”

“Well, it’s an interesting story.” Darnold began before his eye locked with VOX’s. “Buuuut...is that...VOX?”

**“Darnold.”**

Darnold paused for a long time before simply turning to the rope ladder and beginning to scale back up.

“Wait!” Gordon called out. “I think maybe you can help us!”

“I’m fairly busy at the moment, actually, Mr...”

“Freeman.”

“Yes, I’m rather busy right now, Mr. Freeman.” Darnold continued, already halfway up the ladder. “I’ve been extremely busy being very much alive down here. It takes up a lot of my schedule, you see, and I’d like to get back to that.”

Gordon hurriedly redistributed VOX and Tommy to Bubby and Coomer before running to join Darnold on the ladder. “Wait, at least hear me out! Do you have any idea what’s going on up there?”

Darnold reached the top and swung himself expertly over the handrail, looking down in disappointment at Gordon as he climbed up. “No, I don’t. I haven’t been up there in a very long time.”

“The facility is gonna blow up if we don’t fix Tommy!” Gordon explained, clumsily pulling himself over the handrail. “Some guy told me that Tommy was supposed to run the facility. He told me a ‘condemned AI’ could help me find a USB that’s supposed to fix him. You’re an AI in the condemned section, you must be the one he was talking about, right?”

“Well, I don’t know about all that.” Darnold said uneasily. “This is the first I’m hearing about any of this. I mean, I know about Tommy already at least, that all makes sense...”

**“It does not.”**

“You were an engineering sphere, Darnold!” Coomer called to him. “Wouldn’t you say you have the ability to fix Tommy?”

“Ehhhh...I mean, I could look.” Darnold offered tentatively. “But I don’t think I’m gonna be much help. That sounds like it’s a little out of my expertise, and I haven’t done any work on cores in a while. I’m a little rusty, if you’ll forgive the pun.”

“I won’t.” Bubby said.

“But I don’t know how comfortable I am with VOX knowing where I stay.” Darnold went on, crossing his arms defensively. Another tremor hit above them, shaking layers of dirt from the ceiling into Gordon’s hair.

**“Darnold. We are in a hurry. I would like to get back to the upper facility, and I am unable to do that on my own, leaving me at the whims of Gordon Freeman. Please do what he says so I can return to my facility.”**

Darnold didn’t look swayed by this. Gordon let out a frustrated sigh.

“It’s okay, he’s not gonna get control back.” Gordon comforted. “He’s right, though, we kinda have to hurry, or Benry’s gonna destroy the facility.”

“You put  _ Benry _ in charge?” Darnold asked incredulously. “Well, no wonder the facility’s in danger. He’s a corrupted core, he can’t handle that kind of responsibility.”

“Yeah, yeah, I’m seeing that.” Gordon said flatly. “Listen, could you please just try? I kinda don’t wanna die, and it sounds like you don’t, either.”

“Ohhh, alright.” Darnold caved, motioning Bubby and Coomer up.

After maneuvering everyone up to the platform, Gordon took Tommy again, and Darnold led the group inside an old waiting room that must have been very comfortable back in the day—unlike the waiting room for testing that Gordon had gotten accustomed to seeing. As they passed through, another pre-recorded message from Cave Johnson filled the room. He prattled on about the mechanics of his pre-recorded messages and a few old tests they must have been running at the time.

“Ugh. Sorry about him.” Darnold grumbled. “I can usually turn him off, but if the power gets reset, he turns back on automatically. I’ve heard these recordings about a million times. Listen, he’s about to say something about mantis men.”

As promised, Cave announced a new project for the test subjects—fighting an army of mantis men. Gordon stopped at an old framed painting of Cave Johnson. He was young in this portrait, probably in his late 30’s, with a proud, hopeful smile on his face. Tommy looked at it wordlessly.

“You sure you don’t remember any of this?” Gordon asked him. “That really sounded like you.”

“No, Mr. Freeman, there’s no way.”

Gordon jogged to catch up with the group, and they continued down various paths that Darnold seemed to have set up himself between the wreckage. He moved with ease as Gordon picked his way through carefully, slowing the group down significantly.

“So what happened to you?” Bubby asked Darnold again as they walked.

“Well...” Darnold cast an uneasy glance at VOX. “I had been fixing broken versions of you two for a long time, among other things. It was the same thing every single day. I fix you up, you go to a test chamber, you get smashed to pieces, I fix you up again, and the cycle repeated. It got pretty boring.”

“Yeah, for  _ you. _ ” Bubby muttered.

“I was doing my usual maintenance when one of the Coomers came through. I guess something went wrong with one of the laser tests. He was just burned clean in half.”

“That’ll happen.” Coomer said solemnly.

“The core part was totally fried, so he qualified to get recycled. The rest of the body was fine, though.” Darnold continued, leading the group into a room with three massive pipes extending into the ceiling. He motioned them up a makeshift metal ladder that looked like it had been welded to the bottom of a broken catwalk. “I got curious how easy it would be to make my own body out of it. My rationalization at the time was that it would make it easier to work if I had my own hands, but really, I just wanted something else to do. I succeeded in attaching myself to the Coomer body, but VOX wasn't a fan.”

Gordon looked pointedly at VOX, who remained silent. The group moved into an old workspace with three separate consoles with switches.

“I think he was trying to incinerate me, but instead, he sent me down a pit that landed me here.” Darnold finished, stopping to look at the group with what looked like it could be an excited smile. “And this is where I found my  _ true _ purpose.”

Darnold turned to the switches, throwing them all in quick succession. Mechanical whirring filled the room as the pipes came to life. Darnold enthusiastically urged them all to follow, leading them out to a wide open space where the remnants of what seemed to be an old test chamber sat. It was too destroyed to show what they had been testing for, leaving just a floor and chunks of wall that had been partially ripped away, but there was a mess of what looked like hardened blue, orange, and white paint caked over every available surface in it.

“This is what flows through the pipes.” Darnold informed them, squeezing through a bit in the wall that had been torn out to provide access into the chamber. “Go ahead, try it out.”

Gordon stepped in tentatively as Tommy looked around in dismay.

“This isn’t supposed to be used, anymore!” He said worriedly. “It was left behind with the condemned section! It’s too dangerous to work with!”

“But this much more fascinating than lasers or portals!” Darnold argued. “See? Watch!”

Darnold leapt onto a patch of blue and shot high into the air. He bounced a few times this way before landing back on a patch of white, looking quite pleased with himself.

“Whoa, that was nuts!” Gordon gasped. He hesitated for a brief moment before trying it himself. He laughed loudly as he bounced several times, quickly joined enthusiastically by Coomer, who was currently holding VOX.

**“This is a waste of time.”** VOX reminded them.  **“This technology was left behind for a reason. We must move on if we are to survive, Gordon Freeman.”**

Gordon landed heavily onto a patch of orange, excitement draining from him as he remembered their responsibilities. “Right, okay. Yeah, Darnold, this is cool and all, but there’s still the crisis up there.”

Darnold looked heavily disappointed. “Alright, my lab is just over here.” He sighed.

As Gordon moved to follow, he thought for a moment he must have been shoved by someone—he took one small step forward, but he practically launched across the chamber. He skidded to a stop on the white, looking down to the patch of orange in shock.

“Oh, yeah, that’s the propulsion gel.” Darnold explained as they exited the chamber the way they’d entered. “There’s the propulsion gel, repulsion gel, and conversion gel, which allows you to shoot portals on any surface you cover it with. Then, of course, there’s another special little somethin’ I’ve been working on.”

Darnold explained the science behind the gel extensively as they headed towards a box room high above them, placed beside another suspended chamber. He directed them up through his maze of makeshift paths until they reached an office space, currently occupied by Darnold’s projects. Laid out on one of the desks were several containers with various liquids, the largest one filled with a thick, purple gel. On another to the right, there was a fairly modern computer—modern by Gordon’s standards, at least—with what appeared to be a jury-rigged receptacle to plug cores into.

“How long have you been down here?” Gordon asked, eyes landing on a tarp that covered a pile of what he assumed to be the old supplies that originally occupied the room.

“Oh, a good few years.” Darnold replied casually. He held out his arms towards Gordon. “I’ll take a look at Tommy, but like I said, no promises.”

Gordon passed Tommy to him, who was then plugged roughly into the receptacle. Tommy’s eye glowed brighter, blinking a couple times while Darnold typed away at his computer. He squinted his eye as he navigated through several windows, leaning in close to his screen with a perplexed look. Seeing this was going to take a while, Gordon glanced around the room, spotting hints of a chair underneath the tarp. He eagerly pulled the tarp up to unearth it, dragging the chair out carefully before something caught his eye further in. He glanced back at Darnold, who was still fully focused on Tommy, so he pulled the tarp away to extract a large frame out from the mess of old office supplies.

“What do you have there, Gordon?” Coomer asked as Gordon flipped it over.

Gordon stared at the painting. It was another portrait of Cave Johnson, much older now and sat at his desk, but standing behind him with his hands clasped in front of him was a white man in his late 50’s. His jet black hair was neatly groomed back, and he wore a long white lab coat with a blue button-up and striped tie. Gordon thought for a moment the man looked familiar, but quickly dismissed it as he read the golden plaque at the bottom: “CAVE JOHNSON & TOMMY COOLATTA”.

“...Another portrait.” Gordon answered, turning to show it to Coomer.

“Ah, the founder and CEO of Aperture Science.” Coomer identified with a nod.

“Yeah, but look at the guy with him.” Gordon pointed at Tommy. “Do you guys know anything about him?”

“No, not really.” Bubby replied, glancing back at Tommy. “We don’t come equipped with a full history of Aperture Science, Gordon.”

“What is it?” Tommy asked from the desk.

Gordon nudged past Bubby and Coomer, watching Tommy’s reaction over the top of the portrait. Tommy stared at it for a long moment before there was a large  _ zap _ , and his eye immediately went dark, closing tight as smoke billowed from him and the receptacle.

“Wh—Tommy?!” Gordon exclaimed, setting the portrait aside.

“Aw, jeez.” Darnold groaned, pulling him from the receptacle and turning him over. “I guess he got overwhelmed and shorted out.”

“Is he gonna be okay?” Gordon asked, leaning in to look at Tommy.

“Yeah, he should be alright.” Darnold reassured him, setting him down on the desk. “I can’t actually access his program, though. I tried, but I kept getting errors.”

“Do you think it’s an issue with your computer?” Gordon suggested.

“Well, let’s see.” Darnold reached out for VOX. Coomer handed him over without hesitation.

**“Do not get into my program.”** VOX commanded.

“I’m not gonna, I’m just checking if I can.”

**“Do not. Do not. Do not.”** VOX repeated as Darnold positioned him over the receptacle.

Darnold stopped and pulled him away. “Alright, alright. I’ll just test it with myself.” He handed VOX back to Coomer and unlatched the face of the receptacle, setting it aside. He pulled out the pin that plugged into the back of the core, connected to a wire that snaked around the desk. He blindly reached to plug it into himself, and his eye glowed slightly brighter, just the same as Tommy’s had. He turned to the computer again, pulling up programming files with complex lines of text. “Well, it’s working just fine for me.”

“...Huh?” Tommy spoke suddenly. His eye was open only halfway for a moment before he opened it fully, looking at everyone around the room. “What happened?”

“You shorted out.” Darnold informed him. “Tommy, is there a reason I can’t access your program?”

Tommy was quiet for a moment, looking as though he was still catching up before he spoke. “Oh, yeah...I remember now...there’s only one receptacle in the facility that lets you do that.”

“And you didn’t think to mention it?” Bubby questioned flatly.

“It’s been a long time since anyone’s needed to access my files.” Tommy said. “It was only before we phased out human employees that it ever came up.”

“Well, that doesn’t bode well for you guys.” Darnold commented as he disconnected himself and replaced the cover on the receptacle. “I could try to bypass it, but I get the feeling it might be faster to just get you to the right station and do it there.”

“No, I...I think we’re missing something.” Gordon shook his head, leaning on the desk. “The guy didn’t say you’d be the one to fix Tommy. He said we’d come down here, and you’d give me something that helped me find the USB drive.”

“Who even is this guy you’re referring to?” Darnold questioned doubtfully. “No offense, Mr. Freeman, but I don’t think the problem is so simple, it could be solved with whatever’s on a tiny little USB drive. That’s not how that works, you know. If the issue is processing power, that’s more of a hardware issue than anything else.”

“I don’t know!” Gordon exclaimed, burying his face in his hands. “I don’t know who the guy was, I don’t know  _ why  _ a USB is supposed to help, but things have lined up so far! He said Tommy was supposed to run the facility, which makes sense, and he said we’d find you after I disconnected Tommy. And it’s not like I know of anything else to do, here.”

**“You could give me back my facility.”** VOX suggested.

“Bro, you  _ know  _ that’s not happening.”

“Hmmm.” Darnold put a hand to the face of his core thoughtfully. “Well, I don’t know about all that, but you’re welcome to look through some of this old stuff I’ve collected. There might be something useful in there.”

Darnold indicated back to the pile of old supplies. Gordon headed over and started picking his way through, followed quickly by Bubby. The pile mostly consisted of old office supplies like Gordon had initially thought; he was ready to give up when Bubby suddenly dragged something out that looked very much like it did not belong in the pile. It was a massive, shelf-sized black console that had been facing towards the wall; there was a black screen and several buttons with a dial, looking almost like an arcade cabinet with a weird hose with a nozzle on the end hooked on the side.

“What’s this thing?” Bubby asked, holding the nozzle up for Darnold to see.

“Oh, that thing?” Darnold approached, looking at it closer. “I’m not sure. I saw it lying around here, but it didn’t have anything to do with the gel, so...you’re welcome to try it, though.”

Bubby found a place to plug the machine in and stood at the controls, clicking a few buttons experimentally as Gordon hovered over his shoulder. The screen blinked to life, reading “SELECT A TARGET” in green text against a black screen. Bubby immediately turned to point the nozzle at Gordon.

“Hey, hey, don’t test it on me!” Gordon yelped.

Bubby didn’t respond, simply watching as the screen changed. There was a long, green line graph now; as Bubby clicked the dial to the side, a time and date displayed at the top. It only changed by day-long increments, but as Bubby scrolled way back, there didn’t seem to be a limit on how far back it could go.

“I think this is what you were looking for.” Bubby said thoughtfully. “This might be able to send you back in time.”

“What? A fucking time machine?” Gordon asked incredulously. “There’s no way in hell we made a time machine and, like,  _ survived. _ Aperture wouldn’t just drop a project like that, right? We would’ve sold it to the public for a fortune by now and had all time wiped out by people, like, trying to save the Titanic or whatever.”

“Well,” Darnold began, but he was cut off by a massive flash of green light, similar to when he’d been teleported by the man in the suit. Gordon blinked several times and shook his head, his eyes taking a few seconds to readjust. He was in the same room as before, but he didn’t find the man in the suit like he had expected—in fact, nobody but him was there now; it was all arranged just like a normal workspace he would come to expect from Aperture. Gordon peered out the window, down at the old remnants of the test chamber they’d just been in. It wasn’t half destroyed, he found—it was half built, with construction workers milling about below. Gordon gripped his chest.

“Oh, fuck.”


End file.
